<Begin Segment 16>

MA: So at this point, your parents were in Wyoming for a while and then they moved, moved to Salt Lake City. And did you go join them at that point, when they arrived in Salt Lake City? Towards the end of camp and end of the war?

GO: No, no, I didn't. I didn't go out until we were, they were ready to have us move out of Topaz. And so, yes, I don't remember going out there, because they were busy trying to make their hot rooms and their facilities to become a, to have a miso business, 'cause this was a manufacturing business, it wasn't just buying and storing, you know.

MA: I see. So they were preparing for their, for the miso business all that time.

GO: Uh-huh.

MA: Can you talk about when, about leaving Topaz and arriving in Salt Lake City and what that was like?

GO: Well, we moved into a house, old, old house, but it was a fairly good-looking house, I was glad, and it was on the west side of town and didn't have to worry about our neighbors, keeping up with the neighbors. And it was close enough to the factory that one car would do, you know. [Laughs] If my mom wanted to have the car one day, well, she'll just take my dad to the office and so forth. The other workers found somebody to drive them, I guess.

MA: What was the west side like? Can you describe that, that neighborhood in Salt Lake City?

GO: You know, it didn't look that bad, nor was it deteriorated in that, and it still had the wide streets. [Laughs] In front of our house, anyway, it was really wide. Let's see, I already graduated Topaz, I had a Topaz diploma, so I didn't have to go to school here.

MA: And what type of, of work did you, did you do?

GO: I always helped my dad with his bookkeeping. And I noticed, "Gee, the Japanese way is just like the American way," you know. It didn't change anything at all. Maybe in Japan they started teaching the universal so-called "American way."

<End Segment 16> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Topaz Museum. All Rights Reserved.