<Begin Segment 17>

TI: So we talked about how you got this, I guess, army escort to the Puyallup Assembly Center, then you go into the Puyallup -- I'm sorry, the Portland Assembly Center.

MM: Portland Assembly Center.

TI: Portland Assembly Center. So describe that. What was it like for you when you went to the Portland Assembly Center?

MM: I knew very few people. I didn't know very many, really. We went to Portland for different occasions, but then I didn't really know many families, like the Tsuboi family, I knew the family, Tsuboi family, and the Maedas. But there were a few church ladies and people that I met (...) there. But everybody was friendly. I started working right away. I worked for Mr. Sandquist, the project manager there in the office.

TI: The project manager, or the project administrator?

MM: They're all civil service people, government people worked there. I remember Mr. Sandquist worked there.

TI: Now, for your housing, did they put you in with Milton at that time, or how did they arrange that when you first came?

MM: With the Maedas until we got married, May 19th. So I think it was May 12th that I left Hood River, and on the 19th, I got married.

TI: So May 12th you're with the Maedas.

MM: May 12th I came to Portland.

TI: And how big was their family? I mean, how large was their...

MM: Just Mr. and Mrs. and Roy and Frances. (...) Just Mr. and Mrs. and Frances. (Roy was still with family at Minidoka).

TI: It's okay. So it sounds, but where was Milton staying?

MM: (With the Maedas). He was, he went, he tried to join the army in Minidoka, but he was flat foot and they turned him down.

TI: But when he was at the Portland Assembly Center...

[Interruption]

MM: (Roy was with the Maeda family in the Portland Assembly Center and Minidoka). Because I had a single bed with the Maedas there until, that week, the 12th to the 19th.

TI: So in one week's time, you got married to Milton.

MM: Nineteenth there?

TI: Yeah, on the nineteen. So that's one week.

MM: Then they got an apartment for us.

TI: So we'll... I want to go with this step by step. First, let's go back and tell me how you got your marriage certificate again. So you talked about how you got the marriage certificate before you went into the Portland Assembly Center, that you had, you said Chop was...

MM: Oh, you mean that Chop went to the Hood River courthouse to get that? Uh-huh.

TI: Now was it Chop or was it Min?

MM: Chop is Ray, is the oldest. Chop is Ray, the oldest. They call him Chop.

TI: Right. But Chop got that, or was it...

MM: Chop, no, Chop.

TI: Chop, okay. And so you got the marriage certificate before you went to Portland.

MM: Yes.

TI: And then you go into the assembly center.

MM: Reverend Hayashi (was the minister).

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2014 Densho. All Rights Reserved.