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

<Begin Segment 15>

RP: How far was the camp from Nyssa?

AF: About twelve miles.

TM: Yes, something like that.

RP: So in those first months that you were there you spent time in the camp or the town, you said you went, would go to the movies on occasion. What was the response, the local response of the Caucasian community in Nyssa to this camp?

TM: Well, there were a lot of discrimination.

AF: Yes, I think I remember one instance, one of my friends... and then her brother was killed and after that it was, it was, I mean, she just really ignored me you know. But you could tell she was very upset. It was a brother that I think just got out of high school and... but the teachers were pretty nice, you know, they were more tolerant. We didn't develop a lot of Caucasian friends because there was a quite a group of Japanese going to this same school. So we kind of had lunch together and that kind of stuff, we probably should have mixed more but it was more comfortable.

RP: Were there other forms that the discrimination took? Not being served at certain --

TM: No, I don't know, I don't recall but I've heard stories when going into this town you mean? I think there was, but we didn't experience it.

AF: Well, you know, like Sets was saying that her brother was in the army and he was eventually killed but she went in to get her hair done and she was told, "We don't serve Japs here," and she really put up a fight.

RP: This was in Nyssa?

AF: This was in Ontario which is right next to Nyssa.

RP: Is Ontario the larger of the two communities?

AF: Ontario is.

TM: Oh, yes, Nyssa is just a small town but Ontario is a --

AF: There was a lot of Japanese settled there and they were instrumental in building the museum there. I don't know if you've ever heard of Treasure Valley Museum? They have a lot of artifacts, Japanese artifacts and stuff in there.

RP: Right and you brought up a good point, Aya, these original Japanese families had moved into that Ontario Nyssa area.

AF: This was before the war too.

RP: What type of contact did you have in... were they supportive?

TM: Very much.

AF: Very much.

RP: In what ways?

TM: Oh, they wanted to make us feel welcome and they would do anything for us because we were confined and they wanted, in fact, one family just didn't live very far from the camp and they opened their homes and they said, "Well, do you want to have a social event?" and they were just very... oh, yes, they were very cordial, yes.

RP: Was there a Buddhist church in that community?

TM: There was but there was a Buddhist church there but we didn't... I don't think anyone from camp attended, I mean, 'cause it was... during the tent camp it was still very chaotic and I think that was not in their agenda or something.

RP: There was a situation that developed where members of the tent camp tried to negotiate getting electricity to the tent camp. Are you familiar with that?

TM: You mean before we --

RP: Before you left to go to the CCC camp, there was protests or some nature to get electricity supplied to the tent camp. And just mentioned here that Japanese Americans were accustomed to better living conditions wanted the electricity, the sugar beet companies in the town of Nyssa arranged for the wiring.

TM: That I didn't know.

RP: Apparently some of the local people felt that was beyond what Japanese Americans were kind of pushy about, making demands and there was some resentment about that situation that developed. But you don't --

TM: No, we don't know the politics of that but I just know that we had to move out of tent camp at that time because it was getting cold. We couldn't withstand the weather if we continued to live there.

RP: Before we get into that, were there any Japanese Americans in the tent camp that worked at the sugar beet factory in Nyssa?

AF: I don't think so.

TM: I don't think so.

RP: It was strictly farm labor?

TM: Right, right, strictly farm labor.

RP: And that particular part of Oregon, Malheur County was the one that was suffering this emergency situation. They were able to impress upon the WRA and the President that this was an extraordinary situation and that's how things came to be. Do if you were paid by the, I believe it was the Amalgamated Sugar Company that sort of had wanted people to come out and work in that tent camp?

TM: Well, that probably is like I said --

AF: They probably did I'm sure that they had a lot to do with it because there weren't any able bodied men to do that.

TM: Like I say, we don't know the politics of that business end.

RP: How were you treated by the farmers where this land that you worked on?

TM: Not any different.

AF: I think it was just --

TM: I mean, hey, they wanted to get their crops taken care of and I think --

AF: I remember this is an incident that happened to my husband and he went out to a farm where they thinned sugar beets and they said that one row was like a mile long and you could only go up once, go up by mid-morning and then come back and your day was over. But they were getting paid very low wages and so they had a strike.

TM: Sit down strike.

AF: Sit down strike and they just sat down by the edge of the ditch until the farmer told them to get back to work but they said they were going to quit. And I guess they reconsidered and paid them a little more, yes, to get the job done.

RP: So there was a little bit of, yes.

AF: But they were young kids, eighteen, nineteen years old, that protested.

RP: Didn't want to be taken advantage of.

TM: Yes, taken advantage of.

RP: And there was no union you have to stand up for yourself.

AF: Well, they couldn't get the job done, I mean, they would suffer. I remember taking lunches and cold drinks and putting them in the running irrigation, running water to keep your beverages cold.

RP: Yes, how hot was it out there?

AF: It was hot, it's dry hot heat.

TM: It's not as... you don't feel the intenseness like you do on the West Coast because we have that moist heat. And so the dry heat, we got used to, accustomed to it even though it's hot, it's different.