<Begin Segment 8>

NW: Before we start getting into Syracuse, I'm curious to know a little bit more about what the process was like for you to leave Tule Lake. Do you remember, did you have to go through any kind of application process?

MW: Oh, yeah, fingerprinting and all that kind of thing. And then I got on a train to go, and there were all these young, practically new recruits, soldiers. And they were so protective of me because there were these Caucasian soldiers on the plane and on the train. They would stay with me and some would go off the train to get the lunch and bring it to me, so cute. And then we stopped at Reno, and then I went to Colorado where my cousin, who had left Chico before... you know, you had an opportunity to leave, and so he, the one you saw in the picture, had married a woman, and their family got on a truck and even carried gas because they didn't know whether they could get gasoline, and drove to Colorado. And they lived on a beet farm, terrible, terrible conditions. It was so cold, she said the water was frozen from the faucet, they couldn't watch their face in the morning. They suffered, too, outside. But I stopped to see them, and then I went on to Chicago to a hostel and stayed overnight and then went to Cleveland to a hostel. And then when I went to Syracuse, I was met by a Quaker, they had found a place for me to stay, a professor, until school started. So I have been so fortunate all my life, I think, people have been kind and helpful.

NW: And so that was the Quakers who sort of helped you leave the camp and get settled?

MW: Everything. And they did that to many students, and they still do. They're usually the first ones when there's a war or something to go and help. And I heard later that they even made Christmas presents that children who were sent to Japan with their parents could open because they were on ship on Christmas. That's the kind of thing that they do. So anyhow, that's a side story. So I went into nursing, and I met Japanese Americans who were from California. I think they were all from California, the ones that I... and just a year or so ago, one by one, they're dying. Chancellor Tolley was very open to having Japanese Americans come to school, whereas some schools, universities did not accept them. So same story.

[Interruption]

NW: So, May, we were just talking about, as you were leaving Tule Lake, and you sort of got this assistance from the Quakers to attend school in Syracuse. So I wanted to ask a little bit more about that. You were just telling us about your journey from Tule Lake to Syracuse, and I'm wondering, what was it like for you when you arrived in Syracuse?

MW: Hmm. Well, first time being really alone, and it was exciting in a way, it's kind of an adventure. There was always a sense of, some fear, anxiety.

NW: Was the sort of anxiety of being away from your family?

MW: Right. Because I've always had very close contact. We didn't have cell phones. In those days, you didn't even send telegrams unless it was something awful happening or a birth of a baby. And it was very few lines. Life is so different now. I was grateful to have all that help from everybody. And that got us kind of excited, too, just a new adventure. I lived in a group home, an apartment that's a house that was made into many bedrooms. I guess we did have a dining room, too, and you have a house resident who's kind of in charge. So we had not just nursing students, there were people in different fields. And so I met different people, which was very nice. And the other Japanese Americans who came to nursing school, I don't remember what kind of situations they lived in, but eventually we were in dormitories. Since we were all in nursing, we had classes together and so forth. I can remember that they had soldiers or ROTC or whatever, marching around. You could hear them outside marching and singing. So there's definitely an atmosphere, presence of war going on. But the Dean of Women of the nursing school came from Stanford in California, and she said, "Are you sure you have enough warm clothes?" [Laughs] Very kind. One time I thought, they measured me and I thought, "Oh, they measured me under five feet." I went to the dean, I said, "Are they going to send me home? Am I too short?" [Laughs] Funny things that you remember. But she was a very kind person. When she retired and came back to California, one of the other students and I went to visit her. Those are the kind things that keep you going, warm.

NW: What time of year was it? Like was it cold?

MW: Well, it was fall, because school was starting, and Syracuse could be very cold, snow.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2018 Densho. All Rights Reserved.