Densho Digital Archive - Kay Endo Interview (denshovh-ekay-01-0009)

<Begin Segment 9>

RP: Now you had a couple of interesting folks in the camp there. One gentleman was Min Yasui who had gone around to a number of different policemen trying to get himself arrested and finally did.

KE: Right.

RP: And was sent to Minidoka after his... after being jailed for a while.

KE: And this is a story that was relayed by Ron Shiozaki at that time was, I don't know if he's still living but he's living in Gardenia, California and he was originally from Portland. Before the war his parents passed away so they went back to Japan and he came back to the United States and went to the University of Washington. But in the meantime he was put into the camp and since he was a bachelor and his brother was a bachelor, they were in the bachelor apartment in Minidoka and that's where they met, well, he knew Min Yasui prior to that. And maybe I should relay that story that Ron and Min walked the streets of Portland one night and he would go up a policeman and said, "Arrest me." That was Min and Ron said after that he says, oh my gosh, he says I don't... this guy's crazy, so after that he never went out with him. And then they reunited in camp and Min Yasui was a bridge player so this Don Sugai had a poker game going on all the time and Min got him to play bridge. And so Don got rid of his poker parlor, you could call it and joined Min playing bridge. Well, anyway, Min Yasui was a, as you know, was a... passed his bar in the state of Oregon plus he was a, I mean a commissioned officer in the reserves. And when he got arrested of course all that went away and when he went to camp he was not allowed to practice law but he could give advice. And he couldn't take any compensation so he says, well, at least make sake underneath the barrack and I would take sake instead so one night I guess he had one too many and he crawled up the side of the wall and he fell into the next barrack. And that was a story Ron, that was a story attributed to Ron Shiozaki.

RP: That's a great story.

MH: Could you share the spelling of the name?

KE: Ron? Or Yasui?

MH: Yes.

KE: Y-A-S-U-I.

MH: First name?

KE: Min. Minoru or Min. When he did... he got his bar license back and he practiced law in Denver, Colorado, and he was very active in the Japanese American community, especially about reparations.