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BN: So you're in there not quite to the end, but for almost three years. Did you notice changes in the camp over that period, things like gardens or both the physical appearance of the camp and/or the activities or culture of the camp?

SM: Yes, I remember a number of things. One, very unique in our family was the medical health. We had really bad medical health problems, more so than perhaps almost any other family. So I remember going to the hospital frequently to see my father and my grandfather. But otherwise, my grandfather on my mother's side built a beautiful rock garden. I have a photograph of his rock garden he built, it was immaculate, it was amazing, like a small Japanese village made out of rocks, and my grandmother sitting in the middle of this rock garden.

BN: What was your grandfather... this is your (father's)... yes, what was his name?

SM: His name was Tsunegoro Mihara, Tsunegoro. And his wife, my grandmother, was Tsune, Tsune Mihara.

BN: Wait, this is your...

[Interruption]

SM: My father's side in Heart Mountain. My mother's side went to Topaz.

BN: Topaz, okay. So this is your father's side.

SM: My father's side, sorry.

BN: Bu then he gets ill in camp, right? Your grandfather?

SM: My grandfather became very ill and I remember watching him in the hospital. And something strange happened, and that is his body started withering away, he turned out to be skin and bones within three months. He looked awful; he looked like a Holocaust survivor. And so I wondered, and then he passed away. So I wondered for a long time what happened. We had a funeral in a barrack, very difficult. And I have a photograph of the funeral service and my father and my grandmother next to me, and the casket. What happened was I was curious what really happened in that hospital. And so I got a hold of his medical records a few years back from the National Archives and I couldn't believe what I was reading. The doctors suspected he might have colon cancer, and what they did was they were trying... I call it an experiment because it was quite unusual. They were denying him nutrition. I remember because Grandfather asked, "Bring me more food, I'm hungry." And then I looked at his records and I found out there was no intravenous feeding, no attempts to try to give him nutrition. In fact, they were giving him a laxative for cancer of all things, and then he passed away. So I knew these doctors in camp, they just weren't qualified to handle specialty diseases. They didn't know how to go forth and cure glaucoma for my father and colon cancer of my grandfather. And so I feel very bad about the decision by the government not to allow reasonable medical care for people who had special problems. I found out many other families had similar problems of lack of adequate care in all the camps.

BN: So yeah, that's sad. Both your father and grandfather were really negatively affected by that lack of proper medical care.

SM: Right, right.

BN: Yes, that's terrible. What happened to your... you had the funeral in camp for your grandfather, do you know what happened to his, he wasn't buried there, I assume?

SM: No. Everyone who died, the family had a couple of options. One is to bury him at camp, there was a small cemetery. The other is to have the remains cremated, but in no case was the remains to be sent back escorted by the family, back in California. So as a result, Grandmother made the decision it had to be cremation because she's not going to want his remains staying here in Wyoming forever. And that was another problem because there was no crematory in Wyoming at that time. The closest ones were either in Montana or in Denver, and so Grandma had asked that his remains be cremated in Montana and ashes returned to stay with her until the camp was over, so that's what she decided.

BN: And then he was interred then afterwards.

SM: Yes, in a family plot in San Francisco.

BN: So do you remember, again, I know you're just a kid, so you may not, but do you remember anything about the Nisei starting to volunteer for the 442nd and later be drafted?

SM: I knew there was some activity about first volunteering and then the draft. And I remember in our mess hall in Block 14, after dinner there would be some meetings of some young people. I found out later it was the start of the resister activity, the famous Heart Mountain resisters. I didn't know any of them because they were a little bit older than me, but I remember those meetings in the mess halls.

BN: Did you have any cousins or family members who were old enough to have been in the 442nd?

SM: No, not in our family Our family was either very young like myself or adults.

BN: Adults, okay.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.