Densho Digital Repository - Mary Kinoshita Ikeda Interview (Densho ID: ddr-densho-1000-510-23)

<Begin Segment 23>

TI: Now, you showed me years ago the pictures of the outdoor memorial service. Do you remember that service, do you remember being there?

MI: Oh, I cried like heck. There were other servicemen, too, it wasn't just Bako, there was other... and then it was a big field that, oh, it was just full of people. I mean, everybody's in camp. It was sad.

TI: And so how did they set up... were the families, like at other memorial services, you guys were in front?

MI: Yeah, well, Dad and Mom were, and the other gold star parents were there. I think I was on the side.

TI: And in that photograph, the gentleman who presented the flag...

MI: Yeah, that was Mr... I can't remember his name, but he had, we was just like an emcee.

TI: And did he present the flags to the other families, too?

MI: I don't know who presented the flag to him, I really can't remember that.

TI: Or to the other families? Like I'm blanking, you know, the courthouse is named after him.

MI: Oh, William Nakamura. He lived in Block 16, too.

TI: Yeah, so he also was killed in action.

MI: He died right after Bako, yeah.

TI: And so was the flag, did the same Issei gentleman...

MI: That part there I really don't know. I just know later on that that picture came up. I had a crying jag that day.

TI: I'm sorry, you had a what?

MI: Crying jag. So I really can't remember.

TI: And the photograph, I think, was taken by a Japanese American with...

MI: That I don't know.

TI: Yeah, because it was actually in a publication.

BY: So was there a photographer there documenting the whole ceremony then?

TI: Yeah.

BY: And are there other pictures from that same ceremony?

MI: I think there were about four or five other families.

TI: So I've seen pictures of the stage, who was on the stage, and the striking thing to me was, from the photographs, there weren't any military officials.

MI: Yeah, that's what Junks keeps saying, I don't know.

TI: And it wasn't like they couldn't be there, because you had military officials on the perimeter guarding.

MI: But it was big gathering, that's all I could say.

BY: So the fact that no military people even told the families, first of all, that their sons had been killed and then did not attend the memorial service.

MI: I think that was it for all the camps. Because it wasn't just Minidoka, Castellina, a lot of the servicemen died there. And the biggest one was the Lost Battalion.