<Begin Segment 38>

DG: Okay. Then why did you go to Chicago?

RM: Well, all of our friends were going there and looked like they were getting pretty good jobs so...

DG: So why did your parents stay in camp?

RM: Well, they didn't want to move, you know. I don't think any of the Isseis, some of them, but most of them wanted to stay there.

DG: Okay. Let's talk about your parents now in these times, okay? What was your father -- like what kind of things was he saying as all this was happening to you? Was he upset? Your mother had to leave a beautiful home.

RM: Yeah. Well, no I don't think they were as upset as they should have, could have been, you know. I think they realized that it's something that's happened and no use resisting it.

DG: But here, I mean, your father had all these businesses and he had to leave them. And then when was it that it came up that you had to sell the house and the cranberry business?

RM: That was while we were in camp.

DG: Right. And why was that?

RM: Why we had to sell?

DG: Uh-huh.

RM: Well, the person that was looking after -- I mean, he wasn't actually run the place, but he had a store in Ilwaco [Inaudible]. He got a lot of pressure, I think, from people there. So he thought it would be most advisable to sell and get what we could.

DG: And he wrote to you to tell you this?

RM: Yeah, I don't know whether he wrote or called or what, but anyway that's what he said.

DG: And so you agreed to do this?

RM: Well, he was my, like I say, my guardian or whatever and so we had quite a bit of trust in him.

DG: Okay. So you sold your house and your cranberry farm.

RM: Yeah. he suggested -- well, if it was a little bit later, he probably wouldn't have, but at that time it looked like we didn't know how long we would be in camp. And so he -- that's what he suggested anyway.

DG: But you think that he was pressured somewhat to do this.

RM: He was pressured, sure.

DG: What did you get for it?

RM: Huh?

DG: What did you get for it?

RM: We got nothing for it. Ten thousand dollars cash, that is nothing, a drop in the bucket. We had about ten acres of cranberries and nice home and ten thousand, you couldn't even buy part of the house for ten thousand. Something that just had to -- forced into.

DG: The furniture and everything?

RM: Yeah. It was ridiculous, but what else could we..., you know?

DG: Well, but you tell me that your father took it pretty hard.

RM: Yeah. Yeah, he did.

DG: And you think that that had to do with his health.

RM: Yeah, I think so.

DG: Just imagine, losing everything that you had built up.

RM: He worked a lifetime, yeah. Yeah, my mother was more stronger will -- I mean, more will so she didn't take it that hard. She took it hard all right, but not as hard as my father did.

DG: Do you remember anything he said or did or that made you realize how hard it was on him?

RM: Well, I could tell.

<End Segment 38> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.