Many Japs to Live in Midwest, Says Evacuee Returned Here

After spending almost two years in the Minidoka Japanese Relocation Center at Hunt, Idaho, Mrs. Lun P. Woo, Japanese wife of a Seattle Chinese restaurant operator, and their two young children yesterday were back in their own home at 328 25th Ave.

Mrs. Woo and the two little girls--Hazel Joy, 9 years old, and Grace Gay, 7--returned to their home in the war zone under authority of a permit issued by the civilian affairs division of the Western Defense Command at San Francisco. The permission was granted because of the mixed marriage.

In the midst of reestablishing her family in the Woos' modest brick house, Mrs. Woo said she believed about a dozen of her race have been allowed to return here under similar circumstances, to pick up the threads of living broken by the evacuation in May, 1942.

Mrs. Woo reported that there has been constant pressure on the part of the War Relocation Authority's administration at the camp to persuade the evacuees to leave.

"They want the people to get out and get relocated," said Mrs. Woo. "I, myself, could have left many months ago, but I was doing work that I enjoyed and I was not ready to go then."

Relocation Authority Praised

In response to this effort, Mrs. Woo predicted many of the younger Japanese who have left and have established themselves in the Midwest will remain there.

"They realize the feeling on the Coast, and do not wish to aggravate it," she explained.

And the Japanese wife of the Seattle Chinese had praise for the War Relocation Authority's administration of the camp.

"They were as humane as it was possible to be under the circumstances," Mrs. Woo remarked.

In fact, she drew a not unpleasant picture of life in the Idaho relocation camp.

"There were five inches of snow on the ground at Minidoka when we left," she recalled. "It was lovely. We all wore our ski suits all day long. It was really quite nice for the kids, something different and new. And of course they didn't have to worry about property back here in Seattle or anything like that."

Mrs. Woo and her two children were evacuated with other Japanese from the Seattle area in May, 1942. Her Chinese husband remained here

A graduate of the University of Washington and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the honorary scholastic society, Mrs. Woo had opportunity to carry out one of her personal ambitions. She had "always wanted to do social work," and she was employed as a junior counselor at the project by the War Relocation Authority.

"Minidoka," she said, "was a paradise for the social worker, because we were all living under abnormal conditions. Our clients were always there; they couldn't go away. We knew what their problems were, for all their problems were more or less the same.

"It has been awfully hard for some of the first-generation Japanese who have given their sons in this war. They couldn't understand why they were there, especially when they had already given all they could."

Mrs. Woo ascribed the favorable conditions at the Minidoka camp to the "high, professional type" of Japanese which were sent there from Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. For this reason, she said, Minidoka has not been beset with troubles like those at Tule Lake.

Mrs. Woo had much to do, "picking up the threads of living" in her own home once more. There were no rugs on the floors, the furniture was in disarray, and the rooms were receiving a thorough, if early, spring housecleaning.

"I guess there's no place like your own home, though," she sighed as she surveyed these operations. "We came home Wednesday. The city looked the same, the neighborhood hadn't changed, and when we looked in at the school, we saw just about the same teachers there."

The little girls will resume their studies tomorrow at the Horace Mann Grade School.