<Begin Segment 18>

TI: I forgot to ask. So before you went to Puyallup, did you ever go to, like, Maryknoll for mass or anything like that? I was just curious if you ever, if you saw Father Tibesar before Minidoka?

MI: Well, I think during the war, after the war, we all went to church on Sundays and whatnot.

TI: And so do you remember any of the sermons that maybe Father Tibesar...

MI: Well, at that time, even he was saying, "Go quietly.

TI: Okay, that's what I wanted to know.

MI: Even JACL, everybody was saying, "Go quietly."

TI: So you heard Father Tibesar saying this?

MI: Yeah, all the churches were saying that.

TI: And was the church, did you notice the church doing anything to help the families prepare? Examples being like maybe the Buddhist church...

MI: Well, they had to more or less kind of close the school down. I went to Broadway, so we don't know what happened there. But I know that later on, Father Tibesar came into camp. He was one of the few priests that were in camp. And then people like Reverend Andrews, he brought his family over to Twin Falls and rolled in there. He used to come back and forth between Twin Falls and camp, and then whenever he went back to Seattle, he'll have to bring a load of things back for the people in camp.

TI: That was Reverend Andrews that did that?

MI: Yeah.

TI: So Father Tibesar, in a similar way, you said he moved from Seattle to Minidoka.

MI: Yeah, but he didn't have a car, so he stayed in camp. So we had mass at the camp.

TI: Where did Father Tibesar live at Minidoka?

MI: Well, he lived right in Block, where the church was. I mean, he had a room for church, and he stayed there.

TI: Okay, so he didn't stay in the admin area, he stayed actually...

MI: No, he stayed in camp.

TI: And which block, do you remember where the church was?

MI: It was either Block 22... I really don't, I can't remember that.

TI: And so did they just make one of the... the mess hall or the barracks into a church?

MI: That I don't know, but we had mass there.

TI: Okay. So every Sunday you would go to Block 22.

MI: Yeah. And we lived in 16, so we had that big lot to cross to get to church.

TI: When he did mass on Sunday, so I'm guessing a lot of the Maryknoll people would go there. Did a lot of the other people also go to mass that weren't from Seattle Maryknoll?

MI: All the Maryknollers went.

TI: Right. But in addition to these Maryknollers?

MI: That I don't know. Because you still had your Baptist church and Methodist church people, like Cal Machida's dad was the Methodist church people, he lived two barracks down from us in Block 16. So he was there.

TI: And where was his church, this Methodist? Did he have his own church, too?

MI: I don't know. I never asked Cal. I know they got together. They could have used some rec room or something, I really don't know.

TI: And what would Father Tibesar do on the other days when he wasn't doing mass? What else would he do?

MI: I don't know, that's his business. [Laughs]

TI: I was just curious if he had...

MI: Because like in camp, as soon as I turned sixteen, well, as soon as we got out to camp, I think we went potato picking. We had to help the harvests, they went to help to harvest. And then after I got back, I became a nurse's aide, so after school I went nurse's aide. And then the following year, I guess, I worked at the administration, I did office work after school. So we were kept busy after school. And then we got paid seven dollars for the whole month.

TI: But I was wondering, like, do you remember if the Catholic church, did they do, like, catechism for the younger kids?

MI: Well, every Saturday we had to teach the Sakamoto kids and whatnot, and another family's kids, we taught them catechism.

TI: Oh, so you would go up to Block 22?

MI: No, no, they came to our place.

TI: Oh, okay.

MI: Because they lived in the block.

TI: Oh, so you were like the teachers.

MI: Teachers, we were the teachers. But like you had Ish, Kaji and me to teach the kids catechism. [Laughs]

TI: Okay, that's interesting. And then you would get the materials from Tibesar or the sisters there?

MI: Well, we knew the prayers.

TI: Right. But they would come, wouldn't they have their little books and stuff?

MI: It was kind of a fun time. You get to know the kids much better. In fact, Roy Sakamoto's daughter, she's my godchild.

TI: And you also taught her catechism, too?

MI: Well, she was a baby, thank god. [Laughs]

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.