<Begin Segment 17>

TI: So let's, let's go to the next place. So after Puyallup, what happened? Where did you go next?

RO: Minidoka. Long train ride.

TI: Yeah, tell me about your first impressions of Minidoka.

RO: Well, it was awfully dry, and it was dusty. I think the living quarters were a little, little bit nicer. Not much, but a little nicer.

TI: And so you're sixteen going on, you're seventeen now, so you're probably still in school. So tell me about school, like high school in Minidoka.

RO: Well, it was fine. It's just like any other school, but I know I should've studied harder, but I didn't and the grades showed it. But still, when I went to college it was okay.

TI: I'm curious, when you were in Ketchikan, you talked about, it sounded like a good student, like a leader in the school, good student. Now you're going to a high school where there're all other Japanese Americans, so how did you compete in terms of, when you look at the other Japanese Americans, in terms of your education versus other Japanese Americans who were educated in, like in Seattle?

RO: Well, we had the same education, but I think I was not trying as hard then.

TI: And why was that? Why did you not try during this time?

RO: Maybe just didn't seem like a real school to me. Met a lot of nice friends, Seattleites. But they're passing fast.

TI: (Yes). Hunt High School, right?

RO: Hunt High School. I have a diploma.

TI: Any other memories of like activities? I mean, you're there for a long time, you have time on your hands, what type of things did you do?

RO: Play basketball a lot, and we also had dances about once a week, which were a lot of fun.

TI: How about your mother? How was she doing during this time period?

RO: She did okay, but she had a little bit of allergy over there. I remember that. But she made some really fine friends, like I mentioned before, really fine.

TI: So explain that. How did she make these friends? Who were they?

RO: They were her fellow waitresses in the mess hall.

TI: And while she's working at the mess hall, you have a younger sister, younger brothers, who took care of them, or what happened to them?

RO: Not me. I was playing cards. [Laughs]

TI: So Hope, your sister, might've kind of watched them?

RO: Yes. Hope was real intelligent. She wrote a lot of correspondence to the War Department or wherever trying to get my dad back. We have all those papers, censored and stuff.

TI: Now, with your father gone during this time period, did you feel any added pressure being the oldest, oldest son in terms of being, like, the man of the household or anything like that?

RO: No, not really. My mother was the boss. She's, she was strict, but she was fair.

TI: And during mealtime, would your family eat as a unit, or would you eat with your friends? What would happen?

RO: I used to eat with my friends. In fact, one of 'em, when we had a reunion about five years ago, he came from Detroit and he was in the 442, he says, "Do you remember you sending me that t-shirt?" So I said, oh. Gave me twenty bucks. [Laughs] Paul Shimizu.

TI: So you sent him a t-shirt when he was in the service?

RO: Yeah.

TI: And what was the t-shirt? What was it, like something on it?

RO: I can't even remember.

TI: But he remembered.

RO: He remembered it, yeah.

TI: It must've meant something to him to get that t-shirt. Good. Your father, you mentioned communicating back and forth through letters and your sister doing some of that, did he ever get, or how did he reunite with your family?

RO: It was close to the end of the war, and I think they released a lot of the husbands back to their families 'cause he came to Minidoka, from where we went to Emmett, Idaho. I don't quite remember why, but it was fruit country. And he used to be the watchman at night. That's where he really started to enjoy fruit.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.