<Begin Segment 9>

MA: And, I'm sorry, you came to the Twin Cities because your sisters were there? What type of work were they doing?

IO: Housework.

MA: They were doing housework?

IO: Uh-huh. And, of course, there were a lot of Niseis here because of Camp Savage. Camp Savage was that language, Japanese language school that eventually moved to Fort Snelling. To back up a little, I remember when I was working, that Thermo King, where I got the job, and I got a call to go to the draft, so I had to go for the physical. So I told the company that I think I'm going to be long gone, because I'm going to pass and go in right away. Well, it happened I didn't pass the physical and I was back to work the next day. So they had hired a guy but they said, "Well, he's back," so I ended up with the job I had. And he ended up as my helper. [Laughs] He came back from the service, that Caucasian fellow there.

MA: At the time, did you want to, how did you feel about not passing the physical? Were you relieved or upset?

IO: Well, I just kind of felt like I got left out. All the other Niseis that I knew were going, and I wasn't going, I was staying behind. And back when we first, I came there, I stayed at the YMCA, 'cause they used to have rooms for boys when they came to town. And especially this farming community, there were a lot of 'em that came in from the farm to the city and that's where they had had a... and I stayed there for a while. And several Niseis there were, then we were kind of looking to see if we could find another place to go, and we found this rooming house. And there were several of us together. There were, let's see, four of us. I can't remember all the names of the people, but one was Sally Sudo's brother, Fred. And there was a George Kawaguchi from Seattle, and I can't remember who the others were. But there was four of us, they had room and board, and we stayed there for a while. And then somehow when my parents came, we started looking for a place, so that's when I bought that house for nothing down and sixty-five dollars a month payment.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright ©2009 Densho and the Twin Cities JACL. All Rights Reserved.