<Begin Segment 31>

AI: I also wanted to ask you, what did you think was the worst things that happened about the camp and the war years? What was the worst part for you?

RT: Worst part. The worst part of the war years.

TM: Worst part in war year? You know, for, in the war year, we have to evacuate, that's one of the worst thing. And I went to Chinook and start working in sugar beet and kids start school, especially on the top three kids, Rae and Tats and Ty, and they get treated from this school. That's what I can't forget. They really had a hard time. Well, I tell you, they helped me in work in the sugar harvest and they start school and quit school around the end of September and work all months and until we finish the sugar beets then go back to the school. All those kids catch up all the work in school before Christmas Day. They catch up and they done. And especially like Rae, she had highest grade ever Chinook High School had before, but they don't give her her valedictorian. And when I heard some of the teacher against that and some teacher said just because she is a, she is a "Jap". Well, some say she went to the Bellevue school a little bit. That's why. They don't give. And another thing. Those high school kids have a dance and the principal of the high school, they come to the kids, "Don't come to the dance." All those things I really feel bad about the wartime. And end up with two boys, Tats and Ty, they have to go to service. Tats went two years and Ty went two years.

AI: Do you think anything good came out of those war years?

TM: [Shakes his head] War years... well, I don't tell. I don't tell nothing to kids about the haiseki time and about the how much we had a hard time and I don't tell those kids. But, anyway, some teacher is know how we work hard, they try to work hard, because like Mr. Bowen, Mrs. Bowen, ask Kaz, "How you do, is send all three, top three kids, to the college?" Sometime I had three in the college in the same time.

Well, it's a long time, but my lifetime the Chinook, Montana, that was the longest year. Forty-eight years I stayed in Chinook, Montana. That's a long time. But in the wartime, there is sure a lot of things happened because, you know, too, you go town, they don't cut Japanese hair. [Shakes his head] They don't want to do that. They don't want to do that. But after the war is over, the people sure nice. Oh, yeah. Everybody know Tom.

<End Segment 31> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.