<Begin Segment 6>

DG: Oh, okay. Let's go through that in a little more detail. Before we get there, let's finish leaving camp, okay, because there was an incident or two.

NS: When we stopped to get gas, the man saw our Washington license and knew we were evacuees, and he refused to serve us. So, we went to the next town.

DG: Where was this?

NS: I think it was Walla Walla or someplace on the way.

DG: And then so you drove to Spokane?

NS: No. We stopped at some other little town to get gas and then go on to Spokane. And, the Friends had a house there that they maintained for evacuees to stay in until they can find their own, their own facilities. And so we stayed there until we found a house in the Spokane valley.

DG: So did you have to make arrangements to stay there?

NS: Yes, with the Friends. And when we found our house, we moved there.

DG: So what period of time are we talking about here? How long did you stay there?

NS: About a month. Oh, no. We only stayed there about a week or so. Then we found this house so we moved there. But the -- and we bought it from a German woman. The real estate agent... did I go into that before?

DG: Not yet.

NS: Well, the real estate agent in that area was jealous because I had bought it directly from the owner, and he didn't get the commission. So one night he came by and threw a big rock in the front window, which had a plate glass in it. It was a nice old brick house built by this German lady, and it had a big barn. And, of course, my mother's house had a lot of her friends' things in it, too. And so when the relocation agency moved the stuff, they moved everybody else's things, as well as ours, to this house. But then since we had this big barn, we put it all up until we came back.

DG: Okay. Now the Relocation Authority moved your things. Now, how did that happen?

NS: Well, there was an agency set up in Spokane that arranged for moving, moving articles from the restricted zone to Spokane, which was unrestricted.

DG: But everybody didn't get their things moved by the WRA, did they?

NS: If they wanted to, I imagine they did. There was an agency there that could, that would move them if they wanted it, and they would specify.

DG: Because there was some correspondence having to do with your husband being a doctor or what not. Was he hired by any of these agencies?

NS: No. He set up his own practice. You mean in Spokane?

DG: Right.

NS: Yes. He set up his own practice, but he wasn't able to transfer his hospital privileges. That was one of the reasons why we came back to Seattle, when the Seattle area was open for relocation.

DG: Okay. Let's go back to your house incident, because you didn't quite finish. What happened?

NS: Well, one night... the Friends found this house and it was a nice big brick house with a plate glass window in the front room. One night, this real estate agent from the area came by and threw a big rock through it, and then boasted in the beer parlor that he was going to come and force us out of this house. We found out about this, or -- one of the priests, Catholic priest, I think, heard about it and so he let us know. And we told our friends about it, and they came that night and were sitting in the living room.

DG: Now, who were these friends?

NS: These friends that the Catholic priest got from the neighborhood, and also our personal friends who we had in Spokane. They all came -- and they were all white people -- and they all came. We were sitting in the living room when this gang that this man gathered from the beer parlor came walking down the street, and we could hear them. But when he came to the door, it was opened by one of our friends, and he invited him in and said, "Let's talk about this." But, of course, that wasn't what he wanted. But he came in and looked around, and then he didn't say much, excepting that he didn't want us there and that he had a crowd of people outside who didn't want us there either, and he went out and left. But he was grumbling and they all went away. So nothing else happened excepting for this rock that was thrown into the window.

DG: Weren't you worried for your family?

NS: Not especially, because we figured that it was just that one person and that some of the people that we had -- the Catholic priest and some of the ministers in the area, had canvassed the people, our neighbors around, and they had no objection. And so I was not worried. And we had a big house with a big yard and so we were not worried.

DG: Now this was an area, where in Spokane?

NS: It was toward the valley; that would be east of Spokane. It must have been about a mile or a little more, so that it wasn't in the Japanese community. It was a little bit farther out into the valley.

DG: So you were one of first Japanese people to move in?

NS: Into the valley, yes.

DG: Let's...

NS: So then we were very thankful for our friends who were there. We did have a room full of people who met this gang and told them that they were not welcome.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.