<Begin Segment 13>

LH: Well, and you also mentioned earlier -- going back to what you said earlier about Puyallup -- is that your family actually didn't go to Minidoka like the rest of the Seattle community, you went to Tule Lake...

FF: Yeah, the reason for that, I think was, I think... as I sort of understood it later, because I was too young to understand all of the politics of what's happening, and you live in a camp, is that if everybody went Idaho, camp wouldn't be ready for everyone. So to say, for the government to say, "Well, those that want to go to Tule Lake early, can," and the assumption that the rest are gonna follow. So naturally you want to get out of a temporary internment kind of a situation to a permanent one, 'cause the barracks are supposed to be better, the toilets are supposed to be better, and so forth. And so you volunteer to go, thinking that, "Hey, the rest of the friends are gonna come back and follow you." But no, so after the main thrust of volunteers went to Tule Lake, well, that was enough to say, "Oh, I think we could handle the rest in Idaho." And I think, I think that was part of a story that I heard about, and I'm not too sure about that, but it makes sense. Because I don't think my brother would have volunteered if he felt that he was going to separate his friends, Seattle friends, and go to California and then the rest go to Idaho.

And for me -- well, for the family, I think in retrospect -- I think it was really a blessing in disguise for me. 'Cause I focused on the family a little bit more, 'cause, you know, you don't have friends like you would -- I had some Northwest people with us, too -- but you focused on family. You played catch with your brothers, and you played ball with your brothers, and then you, you get to know the California contingency, and then you get to get into sports and whatever. And that part really -- it's a plus now because as I go to California and visit friends, and it's terrific to say, "Hey, I've been visiting this buddy that I've known since 1941 or '42 and still this, to this day we're buddies." And I love that; I like to think that you have friends all over. And, I mean, not that I have a heck of a lot, but I could stop in Sacramento, L.A., Monterey, different Nikkei people who were part of my life, and they still are. I still see them. And that part, I think, makes it a plus. Whereas if you grow up with the same people, which is... you develop a Seattleite kind of loyalty. But I always had that, I mean, I knew who my friends were before the war. But you have new friends and I think that was really nice. I really enjoyed the camaraderie, the sports, the good athletes who taught me. I looked up to a lot of the hotshot athletes and I can still remember who they all are, and someone said, "Man, you got a memory, strong memory for that." I said, "Yeah, I always looked up to people who were good models." And I think that's another thing, too, you could have good models, but if you don't follow them or remember them, then they aren't models. But I think these people were for me, and I think that makes up your own, the aura that you supposedly have, you know, that how you grew up and how you develop yourself. And these people add to your spice of life, so to speak.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.