<Begin Segment 13>

TI: In my notes I have you, after a few months at Tule Lake, that you got a permit to work outside, at the railroad?

KT: Yeah.

TI: So tell me about that. How did you get this job?

KT: Well, this, this Japanese foreman in Auburn, his son, I don't know how he found out, but he found out there were jobs to work on a track in Klamath Falls, and he and his brother and their friends, they all signed up. And -- [sneezes] excuse me -- and so I, and he knew me and I'd worked on the railroad with him, so he said, "I signed you up too." So he said, "You want to go?" I said, "Oh, okay." [Laughs] Make more money.

TI: Make more money, and you were experienced too. I mean, you knew the job already, how to do things.

KT: Yeah, so I went to Klamath Falls and we got out. One day this kid and I, we walked to Klamath Falls and went to a movie. We came back out and we were walking down, and the Oregon State Patrol picked us up and said, and he hauled us to the patrol office and he said, "We don't know, but," he says, "some people, they may not like you walking around like that, being Japanese," etcetera, etcetera. So, because they have people in the army and blah blah blah, so I say, "Yeah, I know." I said, "I got two brothers in the army, so I know how that goes." And then he said, well, blah blah blah, he's talking some more. And I had a letter from Camp Savage, so I showed him that, and he says yeah, but it would be wise if we didn't go wandering around. So yeah, we, he says, "You can go now." So we walked outside and it's raining, so I looked back in and I says, "Hey, give us a ride back. It's raining out there." And he did. He sent a patrol car and he took us back to where the railroad sidecars are.

TI: And that's where your housing was, right there?

KT: Yeah, a track, we were on, it's a freight car with windows cut into it with bunks inside. Yeah, he gave us a ride back. I was surprised.

TI: And how many of you from Tule Lake were working there?

KT: Gosh, there was a guy named George Kanda, Akira, Ray, me, there was a guy named, somebody from Portland named Yamaguchi, Tambara... I don't know, must be ten, at least ten.

TI: Now, were the, was the management ever, like, careful with you guys? I mean, here in Auburn you were fired because they fired all the Japanese, but here they hired them. Was, so what's the difference? Why weren't they concerned in Klamath Falls?

KT: I don't know. I don't know why they hired us. They probably needed us. And there was about four or five Kibeis, Issei and Kibeis mixed up, four or five.

TI: And do you recall what kind of pay you got working at the railroad?

KT: We were getting, I think, about six dollars a day.

TI: Wow, so a lot more than what people in camp were getting.

KT: Oh yeah. Camp was paying us sixteen.

TI: A month, right?

KT: Yeah, sixteen a month. We were getting six dollars a day. I think we were paying a dollar for food.

TI: And how was the work? Was it, was it okay working there?

KT: Yeah.

TI: Okay.

KT: We'd done the work before. We know what to do.

TI: But then after, again, several months, you decided to quit that job.

KT: Well, Roy Oyama and Frank Tsujii and Tok Otsuka and Joe Ono, they're saying they're gonna all go to Ontario to work. So I politely told the boss that I'm gonna quit, and so I quit and I went back, and I think April, April 1st or something, we headed for Ontario, Oregon, on the bus.

TI: So you would, you wanted to be with your friends more than anything. They were going to Ontario to do farm, farm work.

KT: Yeah. Potatoes and sugar beets.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.