<Begin Segment 15>

DG: Let's follow your, your father's... go back.

KS: Oh, yes.

DG: He was in Missoula the last time we talked about him.

TS: Well he was released from Missoula in, I believe, May of 1942 while we were still in Puyallup. So he was one of the earliest internees to be released out of Montana, and he joined us there at the Puyallup Assembly Center. And he was transferred with my mother at the same time in September of, early September of 1942, to Hunt, Idaho.

DG: And then he stayed in camp some in Hunt.

KS: Uh-huh.

TS: Then he was released to go to work in Utah, Springfield I think.

KS: No, he went to that Mesa, Mesa orchard.

TS: Oh, yeah.

KS: Directly.

TS: Then he was...

KS: Directly.

TS: Then he went to the apple orchard then he transferred on his own to Spring, Springfield, Utah.

KS: But he was, he got this job, I'm sure, because of his past experience with shipping produce and stuff. Because this big apple orchard that hired him, they had lots of fruit that had to be boxed and loaded on trains and shipped all over the United States and I'm sure that that was the reason why he was (hired), and furthermore...

DG: I wonder how he found the job or how they found him?

TS: I don't...

KS: Now that I don't know.

TS: I never knew.

KS: No, he never said, he never told us. But I think, knowing his father, he probably asked around, too. He was active and he probably talked to many people and, and...

DG: Did he provide some of the leadership in camp?

KS: I think so, because the fact that he knew lots of people and, that also was important. Orchard needs hundreds of workers and he was able to recruit a really wonderful crew to go up to Mesa and work in these orchards. So, that was quite a job for him and, and I must say, we're forever thankful because his father helped us while we were in Salt Lake and helped Toru with his education.

DG: And the rest of your brothers and sisters were all in camp with your parents.

KS: Yes.

DG: So did they all leave too, or did they go on their jobs?

KS: They, they went on their own, most of them. His sister married and went with a group from Portland to a different town. Eventually, she ended up in Minidoka too with her family. His brother, one of them went into the army, the other one worked on a farm in Montana and his youngest sister was still in school, so she stayed with the family and she went to Mesa, Idaho with them.

DG: And your family.

KS: My mother, two sisters and a brother were evacuated from Kingston to Pinedale and from Pinedale they went to Tule Lake, and from Tule Lake I think ultimately they moved up to Minidoka. And so they lived there until about 1944, when my younger sister came into Salt Lake and she stayed with me and went to high school in Salt Lake. My younger brother, I think he volunteered for the army and went into the army. My other sister got married and she went to Chicago and my mother sort of took turns living with all the rest of us. She would live with me for a while and then with my other sister and with my brother and so they eventually left camp and settled elsewhere.

DG: You were never were involved in the loyalty questionnaire.

KS: No.

TS: No.

KS: No. That, that all happened after we left camp.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.