<Begin Segment 5>

BY: So I understand that your family was only in Minidoka for four months, a very short amount of time. Do you know where you went after that?

JK: Well, we were kind of lucky because we had relatives that lived in Montana, and if you had friends or relatives that could take care of you off the West Coast, you could get out of camp. And so that's what we did. And we had a cousin that lived, my father had a cousin that lived there, so that's why we were able to get out, probably after six months or so, and go there.

BY: And do you know which city or where in Montana it was?

JK: I'm not sure.

BY: Okay, that's all right. And so your family got out of Minidoka, went to Montana. What did your father do when he got there?

JK: Oh, I remember, Great Falls, Great Falls.

BY: Great Falls, okay.

JK: My father did farming in Great Falls, sugar beets and potatoes, raised.

BY: Okay. So again, truck farming. I feel like someplace I also, either you told me or I heard that he also worked on a dairy. Do you know anything, is that right?

JK: Yeah. When we first moved there, he worked at a dairy farm.

BY: Okay. And do you know, was he able to buy his own land in Montana?

JK: You know, I don't know about that.

BY: Okay. Or I was wondering if he maybe was a sharecropper.

JK: I don't really know.

BY: Okay, all right. And then during that time, what did your mother do, after you got out of Minidoka and went to Montana?

JK: Well, she kind of took care of us. And I think, I don't think she worked, really, I mean, other than take care of us.

BY: Well, and it sounds like your brother was probably born during the war, right?

JK: Yeah, he was six years younger than myself.

BY: He was born during the war. And so you were four or five years old when you left Minidoka and went to Montana. Do you remember going to school in Montana?

JK: Oh, yeah.

BY: What do you remember about that?

JK: It was cold during the winter, and I had to walk, I think like two miles to school. And it snowed so much, so spent a lot of time in boots and outfits that were, covered my whole body. [Laughs] It was one of those things that when you got to school you were all wet, when you went home, after you got home, you were all wet.

BY: Did you walk to school by yourself or did your mom take you?

JK: No, I walked by myself.

BY: Were there other kids that you walked with?

JK: Well, not exactly where we lived, there were no kids. But it was so safe that you just did it in those days.

BY: And do you remember anything about the school that you went to? Like was it a big school, a little school?

JK: Well, it was a tiny school. I was probably the only Japanese person there. But all I can remember is that it was just always so cold, it seemed like, all the time. But it was isolating because I was probably the only Japanese person there. Everyone else was hakujin.

BY: Did you have any hakujin friends?

JK: No, because we lived so far away that I really didn't have friends.

BY: And you said that your father's cousin lived there. Did you visit that family very much, and did they have kids that you could play with?

JK: You know, I don't remember playing with the kids, but I know that we would visit like maybe once or two weeks or something like that.

BY: What other memories of Montana do you have except that it was cold?

JK: That's probably the main thing.

BY: Is there anything else you remember?

JK: Well, no, I don't. [Laughs]

BY: Okay, that's all right.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.