<Begin Segment 10>

RP: Tell us a little bit about leaving the camp and how the process developed that you were able to relocate from Manzanar, just briefly.

MT: After all the papers were run through and everything, regulation that was given, Mary's sister was talking about the fifth, something like that, she went to Drake, and she was my contact person at Drake, so that was, you had to have that contact person in order to, even to talk about being released. And Florence was my contact person. So with her helping at Drake, and with the administration at Drake, and her help there, I could make the connection with the authorities here, get approval to go, to be accepted at Drake, which I was.

RP: Right. And you said that immediately after you got into the camp, you wanted to leave. Did you entertain other ideas of how that was to be accomplished, or did it take a little while before this whole idea of going to Drake gelled? I mean, did you want to leave the camp and continue your education?

MT: Well, there were three ways you could leave camp. One is join the army, and one was to become a sugar cane worker, or...

RP: Sugar beet.

MT: Sugar beet worker, and also if you wanted to become a student. I'm sure there other ways, but those things come to mind. But I've always wanted to be a student in something, and that's something I wanted, I chose to get out of camp. It's something that was a part of who I was becoming in terms of my own life and career in the ministry, and I knew that I required education. My opportunity came when Florence made that kind of opportunity possible by being my connecting person, and then eventually the Quaker group in Des Moines, who also became one of my connecting supports.

RP: What did they provide in terms of support and assistance to you coming out of Manzanar?

MT: Well, adjustment. They provide room and board if you needed that, they provided employment, opportunities for employment. Then they had places where they could recommend employment. And just being someone supportive of who you are, because not everybody was supportive. So it was always good to have our Quaker friends being who they are and always have been in terms of social justice, peace in the world.

RP: And can you kind of lead us through, you were able to graduate from Drake? How long did you stay there?

MT: No, then I went to seminary from Drake.

RP: From Drake, okay.

MT: I was ready from Drake... oh, Mary and I were married in Des Moines, and the young man you saw here, he was born in Des Moines, he's our oldest son.

RP: So did Mary eventually relocate out of Manzanar to Des Moines?

MT: Yes, I found her a job in Manzanar, I mean, in Des Moines, and I helped her relocate to Des Moines.

RP: And then you went on to seminary school, did you say?

MT: Seminary, to Rochester, New York.

RP: And then you were able to start with a church as a pastor?

MT: Yes, I served as student pastor while I was at seminary, and after I graduated seminary I stayed on as the pastor. And I was in New York, state of New York for about twenty years before I received a call to California, to Santa Cruz. And I served another twenty years here in California, and about seven, six, seven years in Oregon before I retired.

RP: What is it like coming back to this place for you today?

MT: Well, it brings back a lot of memories, of course, and along with us is my grandson and his, our great-granddaughter. She was outside, she's two, and we were down to the, taking pictures at the cemetery, and she was playing around in there. And I said to Aaron, "I pray and hope that for Kayli, this will always be a historic place, nothing else." I mean, I'm just saying that I don't want Kayli to have to experience anything like this. We need to work hard and be sure that the next generation of kids will not...

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.