<Begin Segment 6>

FK: So did your whole family stay in Manzanar, then?

SM: No, the family left there. So me and one of the Omuro boys left there. A few families stayed there. Everybody didn't go up to Minidoka. In fact, the Nakatas didn't go, I don't think. Nakatas, and I don't know if you remember the Furukawa family. They lived in Manzanita, but they stayed there.

FK: So where did you go back east?

SM: What?

FK: Where did you go when you went back east?

SM: Oh, went back to Chicago. Like I say, I went back, Lutheran hospital back there, and stayed there a couple days 'til you got a job and make arrangements to stay someplace else. Anyway, I moved to the YMCA.

FK: So what kind of job did you get in Chicago?

SM: Yeah, by then the Ohtaki boys came out, and oh, they really started to come out then, the few months after that. And the Sakuma boys, they were out in a place called Marengo, they were farming out there, and called Curtiss Farms. Curtiss is a candy company that makes Baby Ruth and Butterfingers. Anyway, I looked in the paper one day, and something about "their Japanese blood is their undoing" or something. And there's a picture of the old Sakuma boys in the Chicago paper. So I go into the dining room there in the YMCA to eat there that night, and there they are, the old Sakuma boys. [Laughs] The old citizens around there put some pressure on them. I guess they had to leave there, anyway. I don't know what happened there. I think eventually they went back. Atsusa is the oldest in the family, and he married some girl from Sacramento, and this family from Sacramento, he was a pretty big farmer, too. He brought all his farm equipment out there to Curtiss Farms, and I guess everything turned out all right for him.

FK: So what job did you have at that time?

SM: Pardon?

FK: What job did you have at that time?

SM: The first job I had was working in a toy, wholesale house there in Chicago. And you know, a variety of toys in there, and you'd get an order and you'd pick up all these toys, and all these bins are full of toys, fill up these orders. I worked there about six months, I guess, and I got another job working in a machine shop there. By then, the Ohtaki boys and I got an apartment there in the west side of Chicago. And this machine shop happened to be walking distance from the apartment, and oh, that was a pretty nice job. Walked to work, and I remember one morning, it was about five below zero there in Chicago. You walk a little distance in below zero weather, the moisture in your nose freezes. It's pretty cool there.

FK: Now, when you worked on the farms in Idaho, did they pay you then, too?

SM: Did they what?

FK: Did they pay you when you worked on the farms in Idaho? When you went from Manzanar to work on the farm in Idaho, did you receive pay for working on the farms?

SM: Oh, sure, yeah.

FK: Yeah?

SM: Yeah, sure. They paid you. Very little, but... [laughs]

FK: So in Chicago, there were quite a few people from the island that ended up in Chicago, then?

SM: Yeah, I guess there was, yeah. I remember, I don't know if you remember the Okazaki family, they were all out there. I remember Jerry Nakata showing up one day, and he wasn't in Chicago but he was in the outskirts there someplace. He was working in a place that were growing mushrooms. And the Chihara boys were there. Yeah, it was quite a contingent out there.

FK: So did you guys meet up once in a while and do things together?

SM: Yeah. We'd get together once in a while.

FK: What did you do when you met up? Did you play cards, or what'd you do?

SM: Yeah, mostly talk, I guess. This apartment house was quite the place. It used to be a hospital. This Omoto and Chihara, Tosh Chihara, they were up in the top floor, about a four story apartment. Anyway, they lived where it used to be the operating room. [Laughs] Kind of a distinctive room. Anyway...

FK: What was the reaction of the people in Chicago to you guys?

SM: How were they?

FK: Yeah, what did the people in...

SM: They could care less what you were in those big cities. Nobody ever asked you what nationality you were or anything. I had a lot of Japanese working in the toy place, anyway. And this machine shop, too, they had a few Japanese, too. Little machine shop.

FK: So how did you go about finding jobs? Did someone help you find jobs, or did you pretty much do it on your own?

SM: On your own. Go down to the employment office there, they had plenty of work around. There was all kinds of work. Nothing high paying or anything.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.