<Begin Segment 11>

MN: From Seattle immigration station, they were sent up to Bismarck, North Dakota, and then I forgot how long they stayed. And from there, they were sent down to New Mexico, Mexico, I think that was Santa Fe, (New) Mexico.

JN: So the whole time that you were in Manzanar and Minidoka, he was in...

MN: Yeah, I forgot how long they kept him up in North Dakota, and then towards the end they were sent to (New) Mexico. But we were able to write at least once a month, but our letters were always censored. And then we always had to write to, I think it was Washington, D.C., asking for the permission to let them free them, 'cause they didn't do anything that was wrong against the country. And we had to prove that the dynamites were to clear the land. So I don't know how many times we wrote letters to, asking to free our father. But it was like my dad played that Japanese game, go, so that kept him really secured, I think, 'cause the friends that he made, they all played, too, and so each day... and then they polished, my dad polished rocks, and so I've got several of those, so I let Greg have it, I said, "This is from Grandpa." And polished, and so I let him have it.

JN: So did, how did you hear that he was coming home? Was it from...

MN: No. That's the whole thing, they never let us know that he was coming home. But they, little by little, they were, people were being sent back to camp. But they never notified us that he was coming home on such and such a day or nothing. I happened to be in Twin Falls, and by God's blessing, he was right there. And I'm coming home, and I'm waiting for the bus and there is my dad standing right there. It was the most blessed day. And he looked so nice, he had on this straw hat, you know, and so because I was with him, he didn't have to wait at the gate for, to be cleared and all. It was very easy for him, for me to bring him home, so he got to come home that day.

JN: What was it like when your Mom saw him?

MN: Yeah, no one knew he was coming, you know. We knew someday that they were gonna, because they were being released little by little. Yeah, that was the biggest moment. Yeah, really, God answered our prayers for us, 'cause we were all praying that Dad would be released.

[Interruption]

JN: We haven't really gotten, we kind of understand, but we haven't really expressed how, why we think, why we think that so many men got picked up by the FBI. Why were they suspicious of your father and the other men on the island?

MN: Like, my father was very active in community, you know, Japanese community. And so, and aside from the dynamite, I really don't know, either, why... I think they were scared, maybe the outsiders might have been, 'cause we were, you know, the shipyard, and then what else? The one by Poulsbo, huh, the Bremerton shipyard, I think, and then I think even the shipyard over here, they might have been. Because I remember I came, when I came home, all the places on the dock, where we were, got on the boat, was all gone. And I mean, the waiting room part was left, but the walkway to the, it was all gone. So one day, I thought, "Oh, that's strange." We had one in Hawley, we had one in... what's that one? Point White -- not Point White -- Wing Point, and they were gone, the bridge part. And so one day, I asked my friend, I said, "How come?" They were scared that the Japanese submarine or the... coming, and they would be bombed, and that bridge part was gone. Not only Point... it was Point White onto, I don't remember. I know... we'd drive, ride down on the ferry and go by it, and here just it would be the waiting room part left. Wing Point, Hawley, I think Eagledale, too. So I did ask, and she said they were scared that a submarine or something would, that Japan would come and bomb them. So, so I guess the government was scared of the Japanese, I think. I don't know whether that's the right thing to say, but the way I understood, they were really scared.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.