Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Chizuko Norton Interview
Narrator: Chizuko Norton
Interviewer: Alice Ito
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: April 27, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-nchizuko-01-0028

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AI: Oh, let's see. I think we were still talking about the difficult time, after Tule Lake had become a segregated camp. And you were mentioning that one family in particular had a difficult time.

CN: Uh-huh. They were a young Kibei family. They had two little boys. And this is after the decision was made by many of them to expatriate. And it was arranged with the U.S. government that this should take place. And I do know of this one family -- a sister of one of the people who, a family who lived in our block, or in our barrack -- those people decided that they would go back to Japan. So I did go to where they were all congregated, being readied to take them onto the trucks to take them to where they could get a plane or a boat or something to go back to Japan. And they, like we, were cautioned that they could only take that which they could carry in their two hands as well as on their body. And they had a little toddler who was maybe not even around two and a little baby in arms, and this little toddler had diapers strapped to his back as well as his front. I felt so bad. We cried and cried, but they were determined, and they, to go. So there was a lot of... we felt sad, but some of the people felt, well, that's, that's their decision, that's their hard luck. And it was very hard luck once they got to Japan, we later found out, because the people in Japan were certainly having a very difficult time even getting enough food for themselves.

AI: Well, I was wondering if you had heard very much about, of the discussions among some of these families and what went into their decision to take such a drastic step.

CN: I didn't hear from them directly, just by rumors, that they felt that it was America's fault that we were in this predicament, and that they also felt that Japan needed them. And, of course, the camp administrator, Mr. Best, didn't do a blasted thing to calm everyone's anger and nerves. And there was a lot of griping about not enough money, I mean, not enough food. And the food that we get, got were not adequate nor were they up to par and so it was... so some of these people really had... I mean, let me put it this way: Mr. Best did nothing to try to improve the bad situations. And I'm not saying, therefore, they had every right to go to Japan, but anyway, it was...

AI: The conditions were so bad.

CN: It was really very, very bad.

<End Segment 28> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.