Densho Digital Archive - Chiyoko Yano Interview (denshovh-ychiyoko-01-0016)

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MA: So your father-in-law was in North Dakota for, you said, two years. When did he come back? Was he released, or, I guess he wasn't really released, but did he come to Poston?

CY: He was able to come back to Poston about, let's see, about 1944. Because he was there when the, my daughter was born, so it must have been late '44. 'Cause she was born in March, so he was there then.

MA: And did he talk about, at all, his time in North Dakota or what had happened to him?

CY: I guess he talked about the interview about saying that he complained about the cash being missing, and they tried to say that it wasn't, it wasn't taken, that he's telling it's all his thinking. But he knew 'cause we had a store, so we had cash. And besides, he was doing the banking, too, so yeah.

MA: Had he changed at all from the time he was taken away to when he came back to Poston, I mean, physically or...

CY: Well, I didn't really know him too well because I just got married. And, 'course, I lived... not very long, he was taken. And I guess I knew him, after he came back, we lived together again. But he died soon after we came back from camp, you know, he had a heart attack. I guess it was too much for him, because being separated from the family. Because we came back '45, around August, and he came back about, maybe end of the year. Because he died in ('47), February, February 19th, ('47).

MA: So right after, right after the war.

CY: Yeah, right after he came back, yeah. 'Cause one of his, that's one of the first funerals they had in Watsonville. But I know it was soon after, 'cause he died in ('47), February.