<Begin Segment 15>

TK: Lot of it was toward evening and it was, I think it was dark, but I don't think I even went outside, so I don't know.

TI: Kind of shortly after that, within a couple months or so, a group of people from Bainbridge Island went from Manzanar to Minidoka.

TK: Correct.

TI: And do you remember, were there discussions about making that move or whether they should go to Minidoka or not? I mean, I'm trying to understand why the Bainbridge Islanders left Manzanar to go to Minidoka.

TK: I'm not exactly sure, but I still think the government treated the Bainbridge people a little bit different, and they gave us a choice of going because I think that there was a block empty in Minidoka. And I don't know if Manzanar was getting crowded or not, but, and I think that they said, "If you want to be closer to your people, we'll give you the opportunity to go." And I think that most of the Bainbridge people went to Minidoka.

TI: Okay. And so when you went to Minidoka, what was that like? Did it seem, so you're going, yeah, in terms of how was Minidoka different than Manzanar?

TK: To me, Minidoka and Manzanar was, I don't think it made that much difference to me, but except Minidoka was a little bit colder and a little bit wetter, but besides that, and in Minidoka we were at the very end of the camp, and like in Manzanar we were more toward right in the center of everything. But besides that I don't think there was any, that much difference.

TI: So how about differences in terms of the people? So Manzanar was mostly Californians.

TK: Right.

TI: Minidoka was more Seattle, Portland.

TK: Right.

TI: And so was there a different feeling from the two camps because it was two different groups?

TK: As far as I was concerned, I don't think there was much difference, but from, later I heard that the Bainbridge people must, some of the stuff from California must have rubbed off on some of the Bainbridge people because when they went to Minidoka I think the Bainbridge people were a little bit rougher than the people from up north. [Laughs]

TI: Interesting.

TK: But I'm not sure.

TI: And so would that have been, like some of the older teenage boys or something like that?

TK: I think so, yeah.

TI: But you weren't, you weren't in that group. [Laughs]

TK: I don't think so.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.