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YY: The following summer, in 1945, or even prior to the summer vacation, Sally and I worked at our office, the Evacuee Property Office, which took care... you know, people would send forth their goods or whatever they left in storage and I would, we would write letters to have them sent over. So that was good experience, just working in this little office. By that time, that was 1945, we were... the West Coast had opened up. And so we had to think about school, the camp was gonna close. So we made arrangements to leave camp. By that time, you know, Kay was married, she had her own family. Nobi and Ty had gone to Minneapolis to go to school and work. And so Tosh was, he had been in the army, got sick, and then he was in the VA hospital. So it was only Chiyo and myself and my dad and mom that returned to Bainbridge. We were scheduled to leave on August 15th, but then that was VJ day, when Japan surrendered. So they postponed our departure twenty-four hours. So it was the following day that we finally left Hunt -- Minidoka. It was... I think it took us two days, one night and get back to Seattle. And fortunately there was someone to come pick us up at the ferry. Mr. and Mrs. Moji had dinner for us and the tenant was still in our house. So we stayed with Sally Yamashita's home. It was only, three of the children and mother that was there. So we stayed with them for several, several days. But you know, my father was getting anxious and the lady wasn't ready to move out of the house, and so we got permission to live in the basement. She gave permission for us to do that. So that's what we did. Of course we had to use the outhouse and the Nihonburo, the Japanese bath, that was still there. So that's where we stayed. We lived in that basement for about six weeks before she finally moved out. I mean, we put pressure on her, but there was a housing shortage. So she was in a bind too, but she did finally move out and we were able to get back into the house.

The house was fine, but the yard and the farm was a total mess. We spent just days and weeks weeding around the house, around the barn, and out in the field. It was... because Pete, who took care of the farm couldn't manage all that by himself. And so we spent a long time pulling weeds, and they were about five feet tall, I mean, they were taller than I was. We were on our hands and knees pulling all that weed, and eventually we got the farm going, but there wasn't a whole lot to salvage because the plants were old and they had to be replanted and all. I was so happy to be able to go back to Bainbridge High School and be greeted by my childhood classmates. They welcomed us back. Of course, there were new people too, but we didn't encounter any bad situation. We were able to get into the activities and in our schoolwork. 'Cause that was my dream and prayer, that I would be able to graduate from Bainbridge High School, which I did in 1947.

JN: Seventh grade is such an impressionable time. Did you have different kinds of feelings than maybe your sisters as far as what was going on there or did the fact that you had seven friends kind of keep you pretty content?

YY: You know, my friends really... I think that really shaped my life because I could never say I was lonely or friendless. You know, some people say they're lonely or nobody to play with and all, but I never felt that way. I think in a way it gave me a sense of security too, I always had friends. We had our squabbles, we had our disagreements, and sometimes we weren't kind to each other, but those are teenagers. Basically it's a friendship that has endured. We shared so much. Even, as the years went on, we were in each other's weddings and baby showers, things like that. It's made a big difference in our life and I think as a seventh grader, we were thinking, "Oh, it's like an adventure. We're gonna see something else." Whereas I can imagine what my parents were thinking. They had all this property and things to take care of. So, I think it was a different... simply because of our youth, our age. We didn't think about the finances or economic implications and all.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.