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TI: So you said your father was one of the first ones to come out of Missoula, so this is a Department of Justice camp.

MT: Yeah.

TI: And I think in my notes it was about, like, nine months that he was in camp. About nine months?

MT: Yeah, about nine or something. It must have been about nine months, but he was the first one to come out, it looked like.

TI: So describe, what did he look like when he came out of camp?

MT: Well, to tell you the truth, I don't know. I didn't, no, I can't recall how that, you know... but to me, he was still same. We studied together, and he used to take me trips and go to Yellowstone and all that, but he never showed the inner self, what he thought about the whole thing. He's that way. He didn't like to think bad about anybody. He figured, they did what they were supposed to do, he can't blame anybody in particular.

TI: Did you notice any changes in him?

MT: No.

TI: How about his personality? Was it different?

MT: Not to my knowledge, no. If he was bitter, he sure had it hidden. He always wanted to make sure that you feel comfortable. He doesn't want to give you any problems, you know. So he was good.

TI: So when he came back, what was the reaction of the community when he came back? Did they have a welcome party for him?

MT: Oh, no, they don't do that. There's no party or something like that. He came back, everybody called up. There's lot of people that called up also, their father was still in camp. And then, in fact, some of these people were in camp for four years, as far as I heard. They went from there to different camps, you know, the whole family, I guess, eventually, or something. We never saw them. I think they went to Crystal City, maybe. It's a prison camp, war prisoners camp.

TI: So do you know why your father was released after nine months, and some of these other Buddhist ministers had to stay there for four years?

MT: Well, I think they probably figured he's a man of cloth. He's not a, he never argued back, he wasn't a, not a "no-no" person, and he probably served as a minister in the camp. So there was, I guess they treated him okay. But he looked like he lost weight, but that's about all.

TI: And so how about your family life? How did that change now that your father's back?

MT: Well, we slowly went back to normal. Same, same old. I started going to school, and we had dance parties. Everything went back to normal around 1946, '45. Everything was...

SF: When your dad came back from the Missoula, Montana, camp, what did he start doing in the community?

MT: Well, he tried to help the people in camp, but there wasn't much power. I think he went down there a few times and talked to them, and I guess he wrote, might have wrote a letter to the ministers over there in the camps, if anybody come up, they should look him up. But he helped as much as he can when they came out, to find a place to stay.

SF: So did he start going around and doing funerals and...

MT: Well, he always did that. That didn't stop. People die and people get married all the time. There's nothing seasonal about it. So he went back to the same old routine, we used to travel to Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. That was his territory. And he was the only minister, so every year we used to, I used to drive around every year. And everyplace you go, everybody going to get married, they wait 'til he comes. Or, I don't know how they avoid dying before you can have soushiki, but it was funny how everything, every place he goes, it was either marriage or memorial service or funeral. [Laughs] Every town we go to. And every town, they got maybe five or six family of Japanese living in there, like Wyoming. My god. Why they go to Wyoming, I don't know. Like Montana, my god, you travel hundred miles to one family, and hundred miles to another family. That's his job.

TI: And was he able to do that during the war? So when the war was still going on...

MT: Yeah, he still went around.

TI: He went around. Did he visit any of the camps when he was on these trips?

MT: I really, truth to speak, I don't know.

TI: So it was more like Heart Mountain, Wyoming, or Minidoka, Idaho.

MT: I don't know. All I know is his brother was in the Minidoka, he was a minister, too. But I don't know. I never asked.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.