<Begin Segment 20>

TI: So there's another story I wanted to ask you about. So you mentioned how when you left Seattle, you stored a lot of things at the...

MI: Apartment.

TI: But I read that you were able, while you were at Minidoka, to have some of that brought over.

MI: Well, like Hiroko was working at administration, and I think she told somebody there that it sure looks like the people that leased our place and was going to steal our furniture. And so he had a moving company move all that furniture and departed to Idaho.

TI: So they actually had a moving company move all that stuff that you stored and brought to Minidoka?

MI: I don't know who paid for it, maybe we did, too, I really don't know that. But see, we were living at that time after Hiroko and Bako and Kaji and Ish moved out, we had to move to a smaller place. And so we were in Barrack 12 which was up high. We had all that storage underneath the barrack.

TI: Oh, so in that space --

MI: So that's where we stuck all our things.

TI: Along with the still, the still was down there, too. [Laughs] I remember that story. So what kind of things were brought to Idaho?

MI: All our bedding. So instead of sleeping on cots, I slept on my own double bed and my own mattress. And then our vanity, we had a cheap vanity and then we used our vanity. And our dresser, we had a dresser anyway.

TI: And in Auntie Kaji's interview, she mentioned that perhaps the prize, the most prized thing that came back was the washing machine.

MI: Yeah, we had the washing in the laundry room, and then whenever people saw us using it, they wanted to dry their...

TI: Yeah, because you had a washer/dryer.

MI: No, it was the same thing.

TI: Oh, the same thing? Oh, I see, the spin cycle of a washing machine.

BY: In those days they had that roller thing?

MI: We had a good spinner, so we used to spin their...

TI: Yeah, so they had an electric washing machine.

MI: And so we just left it in the laundry room.

TI: And so this was the community washroom that everyone would do their washing.

MI: Yeah, it was the mess room.

TI: And they didn't have electric washing machines, so everything was done by hand.

MI: Every morning I used to see these people with babies who were doing the diapers on the washboard.

TI: And so you brought a washing machine and you said other people...

MI: Well, whenever... we said we'll dry it for them and get most of the water out, and then you can just hang it up, and boom, it's dry.

TI: Because I'm guessing that there weren't too many washing machines.

MI: No, ours was the only one there. [Laughs]

TI: Was there anything else like that? Or like the still, did the still come in that shipment from...

MI: I don't know. Somehow or other, they could get the equipment. I mean, somebody would have a... I don't know where they put the... they had a big pan, I mean, big kettle or something to put the mash in.

TI: So I'm curious. So when your mom would make the < class="ja"i>sake, besides your dad, who else would drink it?

MI: A lot of single bachelors. [Laughs]

TI: They would come by and...

MI: Oh, yeah. But other people had stills, too. I know they did.

TI: Now was your mom, because you talked about how good a cook she was, was she able to cook at all at Minidoka?

MI: No, she didn't cook at all. Most of the time she was sick.

TI: So earlier you mentioned moving to a smaller apartment because your three older sisters left camp. And so let's talk about your sisters first. Where did your sisters go?

MI: Well, like Hiroko went to Chicago and got a job there. And then Mary Jane went to college at St. Catherine's in St. Paul, Minnesota. And then Ish joined the nurse corps. She was somewhere in Illinois. It wasn't Peoria, but somewhere around there.

TI: And how did it feel to have your three older sisters leave camp? I mean, you lived with them all your life and now they're leaving. How did that feel for you?

MI: Well, I wanted to leave, too, but I was a minor. I thought I was going to go into the nurse corps, but Dad and Mom wouldn't sign the release for me to get out of the camp so I stuck around.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.