Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Miyo Minnie Uratsu Interview
Narrator: Miyo Minnie Uratsu
Interviewer: Martha Nakagawa
Location: Emeryville, California
Date: May 25, 2011
Densho ID: denshovh-umiyo-01-0014

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MN: Now your brother came in the wintertime, and so can you share with us that trip you took out of Heart Mountain to go to Idaho? What was that like?

MU: It was one vehicle, he came with his friend in a sedan and my mother, my brother right above me and myself in the backseat and we were traveling and it was dark. So it must have been at night and I was scared. Snow outside and you could hardly see and it's snowing, the windshield is turning... and it was very cold. And my mother, I think it was my mother who mentioned the onigiri she had made had gotten frozen. I don't know where it was placed in the car, the car usually has a heater, it may have been by the back windshield where it's cold... the window, the back window where it's cold. To me it was a long journey and I remember feeling quite anxious. There was no conversation in the car of fear, there was nothing said from my brother or his friend or my mother. Of course you wouldn't say anything that would be frightful to themselves or to the younger ones in the car. And my mother always being a positive person, I think she was very careful about that. But when I think of it I'm sure there was quite a bit of anxiety on her part as well as for my brother and his friend. But my brother was a mechanic but still out in the desert like with snow coming down, that would be quite a challenge. But I do remember being in the car and being fearful. I never asked, "When are we going to get there?" like kids would often ask on summer vacations, "When are going to get there." I don't remember asking any kind of questions like that but I do remember that fear I had. So that's why I remember, I think.

MN: Now somehow you made it to Fruitland.

MU: Yes, I don't know how long it took, but we did make it to Fruitland.

MN: And you shared earlier about the problem you had with your name, so you became Minnie.

MU: Yes.

MN: Now what grade did you start at Fruitland?

MU: It was the ninth... I was just thinking I mentioned to you that I started Heart Mountain in the ninth grade and I remember Christmas so it must have been in the winter, with the storm, must have been after Christmas that we went then to Fruitland because that was... would be my ninth grade. And yes, I remember my grades by where we went because we traveled. Fruitland was my ninth grade, Tule Lake junior high was my eighth grade. Heart Mountain and Fruitland is my ninth grade, yes.

MN: Do you remember the name of the school that you went to at Fruitland?

MU: Fruitland High School. And that's where my brother and I (attended)... so he would be a junior, he's two years older than I am because he graduated at that Tooele park, Tooele Utah High School. We were in the part which is an ordnance depot, maybe we'll be going into that later. But so it helps me to know what grade and where as to my age.

MN: So at Fruitland High School, what was the ethnic make-up of this high school?

MU: Caucasian, mostly Caucasian. There was maybe one Nisei there, otherwise it was my brother and myself at the high school. I don't remember any black families there. It was a small, small school.

MN: How did the teachers and the students treat you?

MU: I don't remember any uncomfortable situations except I was uncomfortable when she called me "Maiyo," and there's a girl who sort of took me in as a friend, very nice to me and she had invited me over to her home for a sleepover. And we joined the church there, we went to the church there and the MYF, the youth group my brother I went. Because I remember a pancake breakfast and the way we paid for it was they weighed us before we had our... and enjoyed the meal and after. So if you ate one pound of the delicious food, there was so much we paid for the pound and that was sort of strange and different so I do remember that. But maybe that was sort of just to make it sort of interesting activity for the youth group.

MN: And this was a Christian youth group?

MU: Yes, it's a Christian church.

MN: And was it MYF, what does that stand for?

MU: That would be the Methodist Youth Fellowship. I'm not too sure if they used that MYF there but that's what we used, the Methodist people, and I think it was a Methodist, it was not a Catholic (church). It's a small town, they would probably have one Methodist church maybe one Catholic church, but we did go and I didn't object to going. It was the thing to do and to get to know more people.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.