<Begin Segment 9>

RP: Then you were sent to Minidoka. Do you remember anything about the trip to Minidoka?

LK: No, but it was long. I think all of us were sick, you know. We all have a tendency to get carsick, and the enclosure and the heat and the motion, I probably was carsick. It was a long trip, and we didn't know where we were going, so it was even longer.

RP: And so what do you remember when you first arrived at Minidoka? What struck you the most about...

LK: I do kind of remember finally arriving at, seeing the barracks. And I thought it was bleak, there were no trees, thought, my goodness, where are we? But it was desolate looking. I'm not real sure, but I think I was told that I had to go with my sister, because my sister being handicapped, was sent to another, to the hospital I think to be examined maybe, or evaluated. So I had to go with her. And so my parents and my other brothers and sisters went to check in. But I was separated from them. But eventually we did, I did find them, but the transportation was like army convoy trucks. They had no buses there, that was the bus system of these trucks. And I don't remember how we got there, but eventually I did find my parents. But I thought we were separated for good for a while, but we were not. And my experiences with the hospital are not pleasant, because I had to go with my sister two or three times. And it was not a hospital, it was another barrack, is what it was. And my sister was not happy.

RP: Your sister had...

LK: Cerebral palsy.

RP: So those were, yeah, the early days of Minidoka before the regular hospital.

LK: It was, I think there was maybe a main hospital, but I think it was all volunteer. I think they were volunteer nurses and a few doctors. But it was primitive conditions for them, too.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.