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VY: And let's see, before we move on to Chicago, is there anything you want to talk about that we haven't covered regarding your family in Minidoka? So first they went from Hood River to Pinedale to Tule Lake to Minidoka.

DC: Yeah, and they went to Minidoka because Tule Lake became a maximum-security prison for the people that they considered, the government considered to be disloyal, even though they weren't, they were just placed in terrible circumstances and had to make dreadful choices. And some of them made noble choices by saying, "no- no," they said, "you take my family out of prison and I will go and fight," which seemed to me a fair deal, you know, especially since they knew the Constitution. And many of these people were well educated, highly intelligent, committed individuals, just like Frank was, to democracy, but they committed themselves in a different way. And yet, the government used that as, it was very dastardly what they did by using that bureaucratic tool to turn the camp into factions against one another. And, of course, governments tend to do that, right, because divide and conquer is quite often the technique that's used, and it was unfortunate. But anyway, my father did not answer "yes-yes." I looked at his questionnaire, and it was written by my sister, Ruth, because her hand is quite distinguishable from anyone else's. And what he answered was, when they said, "Were you willing to fight?" she just wrote, "NA," not applicable. And so technically he was not "yes-yes," but because he was so old, he was in his fifties, they weren't going to draft him anyway. And they were going to send us to -- and I was a fetus at the time -- they were going send us to Heart Mountain. And my dad was a talker, much like myself, and he said to the authorities, "Why don't you send us to Minidoka? It's closer to Oregon." And when I tell that story to other Nikkei, they become quite indignant. "What? I didn't know we had a choice." But because my father was a talker, and it kind of made sense, and the war was winding down anyway, so they sent us to Minidoka instead, which was a little bit harsher, less harsh, than Heart Mountain. But some of friends went to Heart Mountain, and so that's how we ended up in Minidoka.

And I think the most poignant story from Minidoka is Claude's story of delivering telegrams, it's a great, great story. And so I think that, in Minidoka, because in Tule Lake, our family was together. We may have been in separate areas of Tule Lake, but we were all there. But as the war started winding down and it looked pretty much like the Allies were going to win, people were allowed out on work assignments. So Ruth had left, and so had Dorothy and Hiroshi, my eldest sister, who had married. And Fumiko, of course, had already been sent to Japan when she was two, so she was completely out of the picture at the time. And so those two were out of, they never went to Minidoka. I think Ruth came back to Minidoka when she married Susumi Hidaka, just to visit us, and Paul...

VY: Okay, so backing up just a little bit, so when your family left Tule Lake, Dorothy and Ruth were in Tule Lake, but then after Tule Lake, they went, they moved somewhere else?

DC: To Illinois.

VY: To Illinois, okay.

DC: I think Dorothy and Hiroshi were in Barrington, they were domestics, working as domestics because that was the way they could find work. And I believe Ruth was in (Arlington) Barrington, but it could have been the reverse.

VY: And your other sister, Fumiko, she was actually sent to Japan...

DC: When she was two.

VY: When she was two and before the war, is that correct?

DC: Yes. So she had a very difficult time during the war, as most Japanese did. And they were starving, and she had to go around begging for money for the family. And I believe she went begging to the Sakakiyamas, who had more money, because (the Moritas) they were having a very hard time. So that's what she remembers, but she had been educated in Japan and she was very much loved by her grandparents who were my grandparents... (correcting myself) great-grandparents, great-grandparents, and by my grandmother Seki. So she was very much loved there (in Mazoroi), and she married there and had children. And Paul and Claude and my father, when we were in Minidoka, were sent out to work, so that could happen on more than one occasion.

Let's see, and then Paul was drafted in Minidoka. And the story of this is that Paul had wanted to enlist earlier, but my father was totally against him going to war, because my father liked to hold his children close. And so he made up stories that he had a bad heart, my father had a bad heart, and so he needed Paul to be there. So it was like, there was some kind of disability if you were the mainstay of the family and your father was ill or something, so that they would make deferments. So Paul got many, many deferments, but I guess it all came to a head in Minidoka, and by that time, the war was practically over. He was enlisted in the 442nd, and he was midway to Europe when the amnesty was declared. So he did go to Italy, but that was when the war had already been over, so my brother never saw any action. But there is a sense in my family that their autonomy was never really fully supported by my father. You know, the patriarchy reigned supreme. But I am grateful that my father held off as long as he could. Because certainly, if you were a member of the 442nd, chances are you'd come back wounded or dead. But I believe my brother was very resentful of my father's power over his life.

So that's about all I remember about Minidoka. I know that it became a self-sustaining camp like many, and people were gardening, and so I think that's pretty much what I remember. And, of course, I was held and coddled and adored by everyone in the camp, that's what I was told, and I never walked around on my own, everyone was carrying me because people had time on their hands. So that's what I was told.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.