<Begin Segment 22>
MN: Let me ask you about your mother. What kind of work was she doing in Poston?
MT: She was working in the kitchen, so we always had enough to eat. Anything that's leftover, they didn't have what they call refrigerators, they only had ice boxes. So they got to get rid of the food, so everybody, after everybody eats, and leftover, everybody brings it home. Young people get hungry, so I used to eat pretty good.
MN: Now was your mother able to communicate with your father from Poston?
MT: She's was, by letter. That's the only way, not to know what they're doing, what camp they were in. Because even in New Mexico area, they had to go different places, camp. They kept moving him all the time, I don't know why. Looked like about every three or four months they'd move him. Maybe they didn't want him to really get to know a certain group, and they become like a gang or raise a fuss. Because he was cooking in camp, and that's where he learned to cook American-style. So when we went to camp -- I mean, went back to Japan, well, he got a job as a cook and was cooking for the Australians.
MN: Now, when your mother wrote letters to your father, was it in Japanese or English?
MT: Oh, it was Japanese. She didn't know English. The only thing she knew is Japanese. My father, that's all he knew. He learned all the bad words, too.
MN: So I guess those letters were, they weren't censored or heavily censored, they were sent through?
MT: Oh, you could... you got to get a stamp, and in those days, stamps were, what, three cents? We were working, she was working, so we always had enough small money to buy small things. So we'd buy stamps and mail the letter. You got to take it to where the gate is and give it to them and they'll mail it for you. And the letter comes in, and they say, "Hey, you got a letter," and you go get it.
MN: So through the letters, were they discussing plans to return to Japan?
MT: All this didn't come up until we went to Crystal City. Until then, the only thing they do is, "How are you doing?" what we were doing, this and that. And finding out what my father's doing, my mother and father found out what my mother was doing, and what the two brats at home were doing.
MN: What about your brother Shig? What was he doing in camp?
MT: Same as me. But he didn't go to chop trees. He didn't like hard work. Even farming, if it was going to be hard work like plowing, he didn't want to do it. I used to go out there and do it.
<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.