<Begin Segment 21>

TI: So let's talk about, so after Jerome, where did you go after Jerome?

NM: Jerome... let's see. Anyway, those days, those anti-American, they, "We're gonna get you guys. When you go back to Japan, we'll get you," they came to us. They said, "Gee, Nori, is there any way to get back to... help me, I want to get my, register, and come back to the States." They were all crying like that. But I got, we can't do nothing. You know, we was just a soldier.

TI: Okay, so what you're talking about is when you were in Japan as a soldier, as an American soldier, the people that were at Jerome that wanted to, that went to Tule Lake and then Japan, they now wanted to come back to the United States.

NM: Yeah, they all want to come back.

TI: Right. And then there's some of 'em that, the leaders, now, the leaders, the family heads, now, they're the ones that started to go, go back. They're the ones that came back. The leaders came back.

TI: Back to Jerome, or where?

NM: Fresno.

TI: Fresno, I see.

NM: Yeah. Before they left Japan, they left them alone.

TI: I see. So these --

NM: They came back without telling those guys that, "I'm not gonna go Japan."

TI: I see.

NM: Yeah, that's why I know who they are, but I don't want to say it, you know.

TI: But for you now, going back to Jerome, what did you do after Jerome?

NM: Jerome.

TI: Yeah, after Jerome, where did you go?

NM: After Jerome, I went... assembly center, Jerome...

TI: Yeah.

NM: Well, when I was in Jerome, I stayed there about a year, anyway. I went to Detroit to work outside. Then I started working for a milk company, you know, in Hamtramck. There was a small town named Hamtramck, Michigan, from Detroit. About maybe three or four miles, I guess. Hamtramck. And lot of Polish people. But they would go to, so... but I got hurt, so I came back after half a year, six months, I came back 'cause I can't work. And then found out that the camp was gonna close in so and so time. Then we got to move again, so I says, "I'll stay home until we move, but let's go, where do you want to go?" My dad said, "Go to Rohwer, because when you go to the army, you'll be around here, so you come to camp," like that. So we moved to Rohwer. Yeah, we stayed there. Then, by then, I was, had, I went to New Jersey, and then I worked at the Seabrook Farms. That's a big place.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2010 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.