<Begin Segment 18>

TI: So eventually the war comes to an end.

TK: Right.

TI: And they start talking about closing the camps, so what did your family do when Minidoka started closing down? Where did you go and what happened next?

TK: See, as far as my parents were concerned, by that time I think my, Ray had left. He graduated in '42, and I think he left camp then and he went to school for a couple years, I guess, and then he was working in, I don't know, Indiana or some place. And my, and Kee was in Spokane, and my sister had graduated and she left also, so that, the only one left was my parents and myself and my younger sister.

TI: So the two babies of the family were, the two youngest in the family were left.

TK: And as far as my dad was concerned, he was going to stay there until the camp closed, except that then getting near September and October in '45 they didn't have any more schools in camp, and then my father realized that, hey, you two kids got to go to school. So I guess at that time we decided to leave, and we went back to Seattle.

TI: Now your father was willing to stay 'til the very end. Was there kind of a fear or concern about going back outside? I mean, why was he hesitating to leave the camp?

TK: Because he was physically unable to hold a job, and then my mother, she didn't have, I don't know if you call it skills, and so, and he said what's the use of leaving, I guess. I don't know.

TI: That makes sense. So you were one of the last people, last families to leave. I'm curious, when, what was Minidoka like when most of the people are gone? What did it seem like to you?

TK: It was, by the time we left it was pretty desolate, and most of the blocks were getting fairly empty. Even to pick up our belongings, they had outside contractors come in, and so we just, by that time I think the government was fairly lenient and they let us have more things to, more bags to take out, and I think they paid for the passage.

TI: And I'm curious, you said it was pretty desolate, not too many people there, what was the condition? I mean, what kind of things did people leave behind? When you would, like, look at an empty barrack a family left, did they leave things behind?

TK: I don't remember walking in too many empty barracks, but I think most of 'em left some of their homemade furniture and things like that, but I don't think they left too much behind as far as other personal belongings.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.