<Begin Segment 16>

TI: So when you were at Minidoka did you have any jobs, when you were there?

TK: Like in Minidoka, what happened is that they started school early, and then for the harvest season, which is about October, we had about a one month break and many of us went out to work as farm laborers, harvesting crops. And I remember when I was in, I must've been what, fourteen or fifteen? With a group from Bainbridge we went to a farm in, I think, Blackfoot, Idaho, to pick potatoes, and that was, we made pretty good money, but it sure was hard work. And I remember that we didn't have any running water and we had to brush our teeth outside in the cold, and in October in northern part of Idaho it gets pretty cold, and I remember that once a week the farmers used to take us to town so that at least we could take a bath. [Laughs]

TI: Wow. So that was a kind of different experience for you.

TK: Different experience. We were, and I think we were there picking potatoes for about three weeks or something, and I don't know how much money we made, but it was a lot more than sixteen dollars a month working in camp.

TI: Now do you recall how many went with you? Was it like a small crew, or how many people were there?

TK: At this farm I think it was about four or five of us that went.

TI: Were these others that you knew pretty well?

TK: Yeah.

TI: Like your brother, was your brother?

TK: I think my brother was one of 'em and the rest were from, I think we were all from Bainbridge, so we just about knew each other fairly well.

TI: So this for you, were you one of the younger ones then, probably?

TK: I was probably one of the younger ones, yeah.

TI: So it's kind of an adventure for you, but hard work, you said.

TK: Yeah.

TI: Okay. How about your parents? What, at Minidoka, what kind of things did they do at Minidoka?

TK: My, I think my mother worked in the kitchen, and my father, he had a stroke in '38, but I guess it wasn't that bad because he was able to work, and then I think he had a job at Minidoka as a boilerman. And in Minidoka I think the boilers were fueled with coal, so he had to shovel the coal into the boiler and then take the ashes out.

TI: But he was able physically to --

TK: Physically do that, yeah. But on top of that, I think my mother must've sneaked some rice out, and he used to make sake in the boiler room. [Laughs] Because he had a bunch of cronies with him.

TI: The other thing that I've heard in a boiler room that happens, because of the boiler and the building to do heat, they could, like, forge steel and things. Did you ever hear stories about that, where they would make things from metal because of the boiler?

TK: No, I haven't heard that one.

TI: Okay. I was curious if you'd heard anything. But they made rice wine, sake.

TK: [Laughs] Yeah. And I think they made natto with soybeans or something.

TI: All the smelly stuff. [Laughs]

TK: All the good things.

TI: And how was school for you at Minidoka?

TK: All I know is that I think some of the Caucasian teachers were a little bit better, but the Japanese teachers we had, I don't think they had disciplined that well, so I don't know how much I learned there. But I went to school, I think. [Laughs]

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.