<Begin Segment 19>

TI: So we're at Minidoka. So you were at Puyallup, then you went to Minidoka. Before we talk more about Minidoka, any other stories about Puyallup, memories that you have?

MI: Well, you know, Area B was, the Seattle people that were there were really stuck with the valley people. And then that's how I met Jimmy Kinoshita and whatnot, we used to kid each other, made him an honorary brother. [Laughs] He didn't have any brothers or sisters, so he became honorary. And that's how we got to meet a lot of the valley people.

TI: And you say Puyallup valley people.

MI: And it's so... so when we got into Puyallup, into Minidoka, lot of the valley people still came into the Block 16, 17. So we were comfortable. Because we knew them from Area B.

TI: When you went to Puyallup, you talked about how the seven of you had to go into one room, it was pretty crowded. When you went to Minidoka, what were your living...

MI: Well, see, we were able to get two rooms because Mom was sick. And so we had C and D, which were the two middle rooms, and next door was Osakos, which was Puyallup people, and the other side was Kimuras, which was Seattle people. We all had to get along. Tak Beppu was in the corner. So we got to know each other.

TI: And you mentioned your mom, because I remember this now. When she went from, when she left Puyallup, she was pretty sick.

MI: Yeah. I mean, she was hay fever and everything else.

TI: But also she was kind of, it was more serious than just hay fever.

MI: Yeah, well, they finally operated on her, and then when I was a nurse's aide, they pickled her tumors. They had to cut a tumor in half it was so big.

TI: Yeah, so they removed a large tumor.

MI: It was in a mayonnaise jar, two cut pieces of tumor.

TI: And I think I read that she also had, like, a hysterectomy?

MI: I don't know if she had... well, she had six kids already, my god. Well, I know she had a blockage, that along with the tumor, maybe they sterilized her, I really don't know. Well, she was pretty old then.

TI: Yeah, I know. I think it was probably from... so I was wondering, her medical treatment, you said you were a nurse's aide, so were you there at the hospital when she was there, do you remember that?

MI: No, I went after, because that's when I... when I became a nurse's aide, one of the first things they did to us was we had to watch a birth, baby coming out, and then they took us for, somebody died. They wanted to do an autopsy. They cut that and got a wrench and cut the bones. I said, "I'm never going to have that done."

TI: Wow, so you had to watch all that as part of the training.

MI: Yeah, we had to watch that. And that's when I saw the pickled uterus of Mom.

TI: Oh, you mean the tumor?

MI: I mean tumor, yeah.

TI: Oh, so they kept it there and you saw it?

MI: Oh, yeah. It was in that room.

TI: And do you know which doctor treated your mom?

MI: Akamatsu.

TI: Oh, so it was a Japanese American?

MI: Japanese doctor, yeah.

TI: And he got paid just nineteen dollars a month. So I was curious if... okay.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.