<Begin Segment 16>

SF: Now, while this was all happening to you, your dad was picked up by the FBI, right? And...

TS: Yeah.

SF: What happened to him during this period?

TS: Well, first of all, he went to Missoula. And there he was kept until they had some sort of a trial where they talked to him and blah-blah-blah. And they weren't satisfied with his answers, so they, they released some of 'em, and sent him to Camp Livingston, which is in Louisiana, I think. Yeah.

SF: What -- did you ever find out what your dad might have said or why he was not let go with some of the other guys or...?

TS: Well, yeah. I've got that. He, he didn't come right out and say, "I'm a totally American -- and of -- if there's, Japanese come I'd go in and beat 'em over the head and kill 'em." He didn't say things like that, I guess. And, little ambiguous in his answers. He was for America, but he wouldn't come right out and -- I guess, those smart, smarter ones knew how to answer in order to get out.

SF: Did you ever talk to your dad about that?

TS: No. It's something that was just, went under the bed and almost forgotten. Then he got out eventually. And I've got some of the papers. I should've brought it and showed it to you.

SF: So after Livingston, what happened to him?

TS: Well, then he eventually was -- they asked people to come work up in Kooskia on a road. And he volunteered for that. And then he went up to Idaho. And that's where he stayed and worked.

SF: How did, why did he volunteer to do something like working on a railroad? I, you'd think that would be kinda hard work.

TS: Well, he wasn't working on a railroad. Working on highway road. He, I guess, maybe he just want to get outta the camp.

SF: So Kooskia was a more un-camp like environment than...

TS: Well, it was camp-like, 'cause I went and visited there and they lived -- had a great, big, like a barracks and had cots. And I kinda think I saw double beds in a big room. And they had their own cooks 'cause I remember eating, I think it was dinner there. It was better food than we had on the railroad, I remember.

SF: How long is it, had it been since you had last seen your dad?

TS: At that time?

SF: At that time, when you went into Kooskia?

TS: Well, a couple, three years. I can't remember the exact date.

SF: So how -- what were your thoughts when you got to see your dad in this environment after two or three years?

TS: Well, I was happy to see he was healthy and surviving. He wasn't the kind to be bitter, so mentally he was fine.

SF: So you stayed and visited him, what, couple days or something like that?

TS: Beg your pardon?

SF: You visited him a couple of days in Kooskia?

TS: No, it was just one day.

SF: Was it a big deal to kind of get clearance to...?

TS: I can't remember all the details of it. That's -- I got, I did get permission 'cause I went there and I wouldn't go there without getting permission.

SF: After -- you were kind of relieved, then, that he was fine physically and mentally?

TS: Yeah.

SF: When did you see your dad next after...?

TS: Well, he eventually was allowed freedom out of Kooskia. So he came up where I was working on the railroad. And maybe after couple, three days, too hard work. So he went into Spokane, and he got a job in a fancy hotel in the kitchen where he cut vegetables or something. And he did that until he went back to Seattle.

SF: So your dad got released from Kooskia before the war ended, right? This was probably '44 or...?

TS: Yeah, I kinda think that, yeah. I've got the dates at home someplace.

SF: So he must've somehow convinced the authorities that he was, quotes, "trustworthy" or whatever.

TS: Well, yeah. I guess they knew based on being locked up that long. Why, you know, to go to Kooskia you had to be allowed, 'cause there was a lot more freedom there than the other camps.

SF: What, can you describe what Kooskia looked like?

TS: Well, I really can't say much. Like I remember one big room where the beds and stuff were. And I remember there was a dining place, 'cause I remember having one meal. But other than that, not too much. There was, it was in a very isolated part of Idaho, on the Clearwater River. That was, I think it was east of Grangeville, I think it was.

SF: So it was no fence, or there were no sentries or anything like that?

TS: I don't recall that, but there must have been, though.

SF: So your dad, after he got out of Kooskia, came back to Seattle?

TS: No, he...

SF: [Inaudible]...

TS: He went on the railroad gang. We were north of Spokane there someplace. And he lasted couple, three days, a week. And then, like I say, the work was too hard. So he went into Spokane and got us room in a old Japanese, what we used to call skid row hotel. Yeah.

SF: And when did he go -- get back to Seattle?

TS: Oh, golly, probably after the war sometime.

SF: Then he started up his secondhand store business again...

TS: Yeah.

SF: ...across the street.

TS: Yeah.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.