<Begin Segment 4>

FA: Were you following the headlines when in January '43, the War Department restored the privilege of volunteering for the Nisei? Were you following that at all?

FE: Might have, in the Sentinel.

FA: Uh-huh, okay. So after you arrived in August at Heart Mountain, cold, coldest winter, how did you, how did you pass your time, personally? What did you do?

FA: I think that, that fall after we got there, they asked for people to go for the sugar beets. So that fall we went out for the sugar beets out in Hardin, Montana.

FA: And you went out?

FE: Yeah.

FA: How did you like it?

FE: Well, made a little money. So it wasn't bad. It was hard work, it was backbreaking work but we needed some money, so...

FA: In January of '43, the War Department did restore the privilege of volunteering for the Nisei, and I'm sure you read about it in the Sentinel. Did you at all consider volunteering?

FE: No, I couldn't even think that anybody would volunteer from the camp under the circumstances that we were put into. So it didn't interest me one bit. I didn't have, in fact, I didn't think anybody would volunteer after that, they were put into these concentration camps like we were.

FA: Some did, though, what did you think about that, when they did?

FE: Well, some of 'em did and we thought they were pretty stupid.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 1998, 2005 Frank Abe and Densho. All Rights Reserved.