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FK: So how long did you stay in camp?

TM: Huh?

FK: How long did you stay in camp?

TM: I stayed about six months maybe, altogether.

FK: And where did you go from there?

TM: Well, the first year, we got there in April, I guess. About May they said the sugar company was looking for some people to work in the sugar beets, so I joined up with those guys and went up to Rupert, Idaho. I stayed there about six months, I guess, until the frost started to fly there, and went back to camp. Next year, when the spring came, I went to Mesa Orchard -- the big apple orchard in Idaho -- and worked there all summer until the cold weather, and then I went back. After that I went to Chicago and stayed there about a year and a half until I got drafted, and then went to the army for eighteen months.

FK: So what process did you have to go through to leave camp, to either go work or go back to Chicago? What process did you have to go through?

TM: Well, we get... after you stay out a while, you apply for indefinite leave. They give you a, they give you a document saying that you're entitled to leave camp. All this, all this running around I did, nobody ever asked me for credentials or birth certificate. I had a birth certificate and everything, but nobody asked me except, until I got in the army, and then, then in the army, well, you got a uniform on and you get on the train, they really give you... see if you got AWOL. But nobody asked me for any other thing, birth certificate or anything while traveling, traveling around on the train.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.