Densho Digital Repository - Barbara Reiko Mikami Keimi Interview (Densho ID: ddr-densho-1000-459-7)

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VY: Okay. And then is there anything else that happened while you were at Amache? When was that? It was probably around 1943, '44, and did you go to another camp after that?

BK: We went to Tule Lake because of the uncertainty of what was going to happen, my mom wrote to her dad in Hiroshima saying, "Can I bring the family home to Hiroshima?" And so my grandfather wrote back to her and said, "Sure you could bring the family home because you won't starve because we live in the country and we grow all our vegetables and rice, and we have a stream on the property where they could fish." And so they won't be starving. And so that's why my folks decided to go to Japan, and so that's why we were sent to Tule Lake.

VY: Okay, so your family was planning to go back to Japan, so you were sent to Tule Lake, and then what happened in Tule Lake?

BK: Well, we got to Tule Lake, my mom wanted us to make sure that we won't have difficulty with the language, but yet, she didn't want us to forget, or still learn English, too, so she made us go toJapanese school in the morning, and then in the afternoon we would go to American school. And that's when I went to the archives to see what information they had on me, I found out that there was forty pages on me. And I'm saying, "God, I'm only a kid, five, six years old, what could they have on me?" And so when I sent for it, they said, "Well, it'll cost you twenty dollars." I said, "Okay." So I sent for it, and then I found out there was a lot of blank pages, but then they also tested me in American school. And so my test was in that packet. And then apparently they felt that I didn't really speak English because I must have failed that test. And so I guess they were concerned that maybe I needed... well, I don't think at that time, they didn't have special education. But then I also noticed that they tested me the next year, and I must have learned something because that was the end of that. [Laughs] They kept me in school.

VY: So a whole year went by, so things changed a little bit during that year.

BK: Yeah, I must have learned something. [Laughs]

VY: Do you think you learned more English during that time?

BK: Yes, I think so. Because I really don't remember now speaking Japanese except to my mom and my parents. It seems like by the time we got out of camp and I started American school, I went to elementary school, I don't think I had any problems.