Tule Lake
July 30, 1942

Dear Clarice,

I'm starting this out with apologies and evacuees for not writing sooner to thank you for the Phi Beta Kappa key. It came before we moved here, along with other sweet packages from Dr. Hoffstedt. She also gave me her chain, the same one she got from a friend when she graduated from college. The key means a lot to me; it's a sort of inspiration as well as something which holds the memories of the "good old days." Thanks a lot for everything -- for the key and all it means because it came from my friends.

Dr. Hoffstadt surprised me. She has been swell to me and to Sadako, too, according to her letters. I certainly appreciate her kindness.

We left Pinedale on July 17 and reached here the next morning. I guess we're half-way closer to home now. We certainly hated to leave Pinedale, which was really getting to be like home and our California friends who went south to Arizona. But this place isn't bad either. It is organized similarly to Pinedale except for a much larger scale and facilities are better. Four thousand of us from Pinedale just about filled up the place so that there are about 15,000 people here. About half of them are Californians, mostly from Sacramento and its outskirts, and the rest are Washingtonians and Oregonians. We can tell the Californians from the Northerners by the way they look -- they are usually tall, big, & dark with that southern look and the boys wear their dungarees with the pant legs rolled up. When we first came here, we heard that there was a feud on between the Californians and the north and that the Californians were a bad lot. I don't know how true this is yet, but we've met some nice California people -- U.C. and Sacramento J.C. students. Also I've run into a member of� U.W. students who had come down with the volunteer group from Puyallup. One of them was Ben Uyeno's brother Tom. I sure wish Margaret were here.

About a week ago Dean O'Brien and Dean Register of C.P.S. in Tacoma were here to visit us. They were here to talk about relocating the students. I talked with Dean O'Brien about the possibility of getting into a medical school and he wasn't very encouraging. Apparently it's harder to get into technical schools right now. I haven't given up hope though. In the meantime I'll be picking up all I can at the hospital where I just got on so a student technician in the lab. I learned a few things working for about a month in Pinedale and this will be a continuation. Dr. Carson, the chief medical officer is very understanding. He realizes how easy it is for students to get state so he is going to give us opportunities to keep on studying. We may rotate with ward workers later on, so that we may get into contact with patients too. A lot of the girls who are interested in nursing but never had a chance to go into it are having a swell chance here to study it. A bunch of them, called nurse's aides, are going through training now.

Right now many of the late-comers, especially young inexperienced kids, are unemployed, but the administration is making plans so that everybody will have something to do. This will be a real town with a mayor and everything and it is expected to be self-supporting. Farm crops are expected to be harvested this year, especially barley for breweries, and factories are going to be set up. Life will be more normal -- we don't see any fence and with permission, a part can go up into the surrounding colorful hills for a picnic or a hike. We want to try this but haven't dared to yet because we're scared of rattlesnakes. Well, I'll have to quit now.

Love,

Kazuko.

P.S. I heard from Shirley that you meet boys from the U entering med school there. Say hello for me to any of my friends. Oh yes -- my address is 5617-D, W.R.A. Tule Lake, Newell, Calif. (Newell is a new city -- our camp).