Densho Digital Archive - Aya Fujii - Taka Mizote Interview (denshovh-faya

<Begin Segment 12>

RP: Just to back up a little bit before we move to the circumstances of how you ended up in Eastern Oregon, two of your brothers were drafted?

TM: Right.

RP: And when did that occur?

TM: Well, one was in January, was one?

AF: Something like that.

TM: And then one in March.

RP: So just shortly after Pearl Harbor?

TM: Right.

TP: Which is in upheaval and then two of your brothers were drafted. And where did they go? Do you know?

TM: They were in Fort Knox, Kentucky, and I remember Fort Knox, Kentucky, and Fort Thomas. And they were together too at one time and then they went to Camp Shelby and was shipped out of Camp Shelby.

RP: So they never went to a camp.

TM: Oh, no, they never went.

RP: So what was atmosphere like, do you recall when they left the farm?

TM: Well, it was very sobering.

AF: One of my brother's friends was drafted and he was killed as soon as he got over there and that really shook everybody up.

RP: Well, tell me why did your family volunteer for this opportunity to go to a farm labor camp in Eastern Oregon? Give me some background about it.

TM: Well, like I say there was a plea for farm help at the assembly center so our oldest brother George went to check it out and he saw the possibility of much more freedom and even though the camp layout was meager, it was far better than where we were. So the next... they had several groups going and so as soon as he came back to report that we just all decided to go.

RP: Did you offer your input on whether that would be a good idea?

TM: No, we had no input, you know, I mean...

AF: Our dad, I remember saying that was no place to raise girls. And like I said before, that it was getting to a place where the kids weren't eating with their parents and you know, and so we just stayed there for three weeks.

RP: You could kind of see the handwriting on the walls.

AF: Right.

TM: Right.

RP: Things are already starting to disintegrate and they were getting worse.

TM: The family structure, yes.

RP: Let's go for this.

AF: So anyhow I remember riding that train, it was at night and they had to pull the shades down so nobody could see us.

TM: Sentries walking through the train.

AF: Yes.

RP: And so you arrived... the train took you to Nyssa?

TM: To the camp, there was a bus waiting for us and they took us to the tent camp.

RP: And what did you see when you got there?

TM: What did we --

RP: What did you see when you got to that --

TM: Oh, we just saw this camp with nothing but tents.

AF: It was just a wooden platform.

TM: Yes, wooden platform, pot belly stove in each one.

AF: No, we didn't have it in each one, I think it was just the cooking, wasn't it?

TM: No, I thought we had a pot belly stove because we cooked our own meals.

AF: We had just one tent where we, it was just for eating and cooking but like I said it's... at night you just had this one light bulb and of course you know, it just shadows out so you can just see anything that's happening in there.

TM: It was so, the climate is so different from the northwest. It was dry and I mean it was hot and so we could lift the tent flaps up to air out and get dust in there.

RP: I was going to mention, ask you about dust storms, the wind blows a lot in the desert.

TM: Amazingly we got accustomed to it.

RP: And what did you have for sleeping facilities, were they cots?

TM: Yes, cots.

AF: Yes, that folded up, they could fold it up but it was just canvas cots.

RP: A mattress?

AF: No, I don't think we had mattresses, did we? But it was like canvas I remember it was canvas with legs, wooden legs.

RP: And did the whole family reside in one tent?

TM: Oh, well, no. We lived... see my brother, George and his wife, they had a camp, a tent. And then where did mom and dad?

AF: Mom and dad and I think maybe the two younger sisters stayed in one tent and then the three of us older ones had a tent and then one tent for cooking. So among our family we had four.

RP: Four tents? So you had your own cooking tent?

AF: Yes, cooking and a table in there for eating.

RP: What type of stove did you have and what did it run on? Was it a wood stove?

AF: No, no, it was coal, wasn't it coal?

TM: Yes, I think it was coal.