<Begin Segment 19>

TI: And then tell me about Minidoka. How was it there for you?

MM: Over there?

TI: Yeah, how was it?

MM: They had... well, there were tar covered cabins, and next to us were two Issei ladies that played the shamisen and sang all night. [Laughs] We'd hear them. But we got used to it. Potbelly stove in there. (What) was bad was when the wind came up, dust would come in right through the windows, they weren't sealed windows, wooden windows, you know, they'd just blow right in, the dust, gritty.

TI: And how about the food? You mentioned earlier in Portland --

MM: Some people say it was terrible, but we survived. I know my husband wouldn't go out for breakfast most of the time, because he didn't like it, but I was hungry. I'd get up and go to the mess hall and eat. It wasn't bad.

TI: And which block did you stay in?

MM: Thirty I think. It was 30 with the Maedas first, and then we were in 32, I think it was.

TI: And this was with more Portland people?

MM: Yes, a lot of Portland people. I got to know them there.

TI: Now did you get chances to go up and visit very much with the Seattle people? Did you know people from Seattle?

MM: Quite a few of them I met, I met in Portland. And they had activities there. And I also worked in the office there, too, we had to walk quite a ways. Sometimes mud... I got rubber boots up to (to my knees) full of mud. I worked for the office there, too.

TI: Now, this is really your first time living with the Portland people and Seattle people. Did they seem different than the people you grew up with at Dee? Here there are more city people versus people who grew up in the country.

MM: They're friendly. The Maedas knew a lot of people, and then I just gradually met them. So I wasn't that lonely. I wished some of my relatives were there.

TI: But did you notice any differences? Like did they act differently or did they seem different? City people versus...

MM: And Hood River people?

TI: And Hood River people.

MM: No. I didn't see much difference, no. We were all pretty friendly. The older folks didn't, most of them didn't work, but the younger people were working, doing something. Hauling coal, I remember my brother-in-law was hauling coal. But I worked in the office and my husband worked for the electrician, electrical.

TI: Okay, because he had an engineering degree.

MM: And I just worked in the office. Administration building (was quite) far, quite a distance away from where we lived, so we had to walk there.

TI: Now were there very many other Japanese Americans who worked in the administration building? There were quite a few?

MM: Except for the project director and the assistant senior director, they're all Japanese, all Japanese. I met a lot of them there, working there.

TI: And how did you communicate with your family at Tule Lake? Did you write to them very often or how did you get...

MM: I wrote my katakana. [Laughs] A little bit of hiragana in there. But not... I didn't write too often. I'd write more to the young people, and then they shared the letters.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2014 Densho. All Rights Reserved.