Densho Digital Archive - Nancy Iwami Interview (denshovh-inancy-01-0017)

<Begin Segment 17>

MA: So you and Charlie left, right, in 1943?

NI: Yeah, we took my mother-in-law and left.

MA: And your mother-in-law. What was the process like to leave? Did you have to get permission from the government?

NI: Oh, yeah. His brother was, he never was in camp, he was what you called a chick sexer, and he was out. And so he called us, he said he'll vouch, I mean, vouch for us or whatever, that isn't the word. Anyway, so through that, he talked to the people that he was working with, hakujin, Caucasian, and says, "Sure."

MA: Oh, they sponsored you to come out?

NI: Yes, (...) sponsored us. So we had to go there and sign a paper that we did arrive there, and that's the way it was.

MA: And Charlie's brother was in the Denver area?

NI: Yes, he was already.

MA: So that's why you ended up in Denver.

NI: Uh-huh, that's why we went to Denver. I don't think his mother wanted to leave, but we couldn't leave her. She had a daughter there, but she had a family, and she also had in-laws.

MA: And where did you stay when you arrived in Denver?

NI: We stayed in a large house, I think there were about three, divided into about three apartments. He had found a place already for us, so we rented that place, the whole thing.

MA: And what type of work did you and Charlie do in Denver?

NI: Let me see. First he worked on a golf course which was real hard work, he said, mowing around the course, the greens or whatever. And then winter, well, there's snow so he can't do that. So (a) friend said, "Why don't you come and work with me?" and so he worked for McKesson & Robbins, the drug company in Denver until we came home, and he liked it in the warehouse.

MA: And did you also have a job?

NI: I had a job in a bookbinding, a bookbinding, and I stayed there all that time, (...) oh, about three and a half years.

MA: And what did you think of Denver? What were your impressions of the town?

NI: I liked it. I thought they were real friendly, and then I'd ride the streetcar into work every day, back and forth, and then in the winter it would snow. I bought a pair of mittens, I had to then. (...) Wore a hole in the tips, that's how cold it was, and I had to wear it every day, it was for work. And my husband said he used to go a little earlier in the morning so he'd walk, there was a square block of park right near where we lived, he had to catch the streetcar. He said he'd carry his lunch pail and be the first one walking through about so much soft snow. And he said he felt like he was in the north woods and the dogs would come and sniff his lunchbox. [Laughs] He used to tell funny tales like that, but, which is true. But I think it was really interesting, and I liked Denver.

MA: And how were the people in Denver, did you find?

NI: Really, again, I didn't socialize. So what people I met were at work, and they were all good people, you know, working people. And then my boss was nice.

MA: And there was a Japantown in Denver, I know.

NI: Yes, there was.

MA: Did you ever go there?

NI: I did, but very occasionally, wasn't very often I went. And it was called Laramie Street, I think.