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MA: And you left Tule Lake right after a year, you said. So this was, like, 1943 or so, when you left?

MY: Let's see. We went into camp, would have been '41? No, '42.

MA: '42.

MY: '42. So it would be '43 then, yeah. I guess it would be '43.

MA: And why Minnesota? Why did you end up there?

MY: Well, I saw an ad in the camp near the administration building. A little, just a little want ad at (Tule Lake) that said a family in St. Paul wanted a maid to come and work in their home. And so I wrote to them, and this was a prominent family in St. Paul. And followed up, and so I thought, well, gee, working in a home with... I'd have a place to stay and food to eat, so at least to get started on the outside. So that's how I ended up in St. Paul.

MA: And what did you think when you first arrived? Was it kind of a shock?

MY: [Laughs] The shocking thing to me when I left the camp on the train was seeing trees the whole, almost the whole time coming from Tule Lake to Omaha, Nebraska, I guess, is where I transferred. And the whole way, it was just trees. I couldn't get over seeing trees, 'cause Tule Lake is a desert, you know, lake bottom. So I didn't realize how good that looked, green outside. But in St. Paul, it was just, I don't know, I don't remember too much, it's just a city.

MA: And how were you treated by people in the city in general?

MY: As far as I can remember, we were accepted well. We had no problems.

MA: So there were never any times where you were maybe, felt discriminated against?

MY: Not at that point, no. I think the family kind of protected us. We didn't go out much because we had no, no way of... and then during the summer, the family went out to their lake place, so spent the summers out there, so we didn't have any contact with the general public there. Then before I knew it, why, we were back in the city and then I started looking for colleges that I could continue.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright ©2009 Densho and the Twin Cities JACL. All Rights Reserved.