<Begin Segment 38>

LH: Now I'd like to take Kimi-chan/May back to a reunion of sorts or a time when you revisited Minidoka in your adult life.

MS: Yes. I think many of us who were in Minidoka had wanted to go back at some time because we had a Day of Remembrance where we went to Puyallup, and that was a healing step. But the next step was to go back to the camps, and so when they arranged a Day of Remembrance back in Minidoka, my husband and I decided that we would be part of that group to make the pilgrimage back. It was a twelve-hour trip. We took a bus that went directly to the area.

LH: What did you expect to find and to feel?

MS: You know, I really don't know. I just know that I had to go back and see what it was like because we spent over three years of our life there. And we just, we just had to go back, and I remember as we stepped off the bus as we were brought directly into the camp area, I thought it's just not anything like what I remember it. Because there aren't any barracks of course. There's just stretches of barren land where they're just flat as I remember that.

LH: So the camp that was there was torn down.

MS: Yes, it was all torn down, and the only thing that they managed to retain was the gate, the gate to the camp itself. I don't know why they kept that, but I think it's because there was some masonry and it was made out of stone and things like that, so it was harder to demolish. But they had kept that and they had set up a kind of a monument and a large sign that explained what happened at this site so many years back. It was quite moving because we had speakers who spoke, but I found myself not really listening to them. You're in your own space looking around and I couldn't remember -- because, of course, I was young when I was there -- once all the barracks were down, I couldn't decide where was Block 14. And my husband, who was older, said, "Now, according to the canal which ran by there" -- everyone knew that canal -- "Block 14 would be over there." And he walked to the fence and showed me. And I remember standing there and looking. And then the tears started rolling down because I guess you think, gosh, I didn't realize what it was until after, that we were all there and that my parents and what they had gone through. And I was so young not to realize it and I'm grateful to my parents who made that life bearable at that time. [Cries]

LH: Many realizations. You understood.

MS: Yeah. And then when we were riding back on the bus, I remember all of us were breaking out in song. I guess we felt a little bit like the monkey was off our back and we all took turns singing. There was a mike on that Greyhound bus and we all took turns singing songs that we remembered, the older songs, and it was really a wonderful feeling. So the twelve-hour trip was worth it. We were only there for an hour or so at the most, and we turned around and came back again. But Joe and I decided that that was really important for us to do that to bring some closure to that part. And so I must admit, there are things that I carried around with me and didn't realize that because in order to survive, you need to put things that are hurtful way back. And, but as you get older and because of redress and some other things -- and for your own kids, too -- you need to go back and be able to put that down, at rest. And then also I would like to be able to talk to my kids about it, when they're ready to hear about it. Because I think they would like to know what happened in the past and that we survived.

LH: Is there anything else that you'd like to add?

MS: No, I really enjoyed talking to you about it and I didn't realize that it would affect me as much. But I do believe that as a group of people, we have really come through with flying colors, and I hope the future generations will get a chance to hear more about it from those of us who were able to share it. Thank you.

LH: Thank you, May. It was wonderful.

<End Segment 38> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.