Densho Digital Archive - Jean Matsumoto Interview (denshovh-mjean-01-0011)

<Begin Segment 11>

JM: You started to ask me something?

KL: Oh, I was going to ask if you ever left the camp while you were...

JM: No, but my sister went out once to... I don't know if it was Twin Falls. She belonged to Girl Scouts, and a Girl Scout group from Twin Falls or something came in, and she made friends with the daughter of the editor of the, I believe the Twin Falls Times. And after camp, I remember they came and visited us in Portland, and I remember going to the New Tokyo restaurant with them, yeah. Westerfeld or something. So that was interesting. But my sister got to go out of camp. Of course, I went out when I went to Boise, and that was where I think I had my only experience with discrimination. Because Dad took me to a Chinese restaurant for lunch before I was admitted to the hospital, and I know it was a long, hot drive from Minidoka to Boise.

KL: Your dad drove you?

JM: No, somebody drove us in a pretty nice-sized car, because there was (Tomiko's) cousin Betty and whoever was with Betty, me and my dad, the driver, and I don't know if there was one other person. But anyway, so he took me to a Chinese restaurant, and right on the front door, it said, "No Japs Allowed," and I knew that was me. And so that's the one time that I knew about. And when...

KL: What was your dad's reaction to that?

JM: Well, he just didn't react at all, he said, "We'll go to Woolworth's or Newberry's and have hamburger and strawberry milkshake." So that was my last meal before going into the hospital. My dad left me there and it was the first time I'd ever been left alone, and I didn't realize it was going to be three months, but I can remember crying for a couple days. [Laughs]

KL: You were little.

JM: But before we went into camp, we used to play a lot under the Burnside Bridge, my sister and I, and Dick Uyesugi and Frank Migaki, and we played cops and robbers. And Alice and Frank were the older two, and so they got to be the cops. Dick and I were always the robbers, but we used to play under the bridge a lot, the Burnside Bridge, in that area. And I can remember people asking me, "Are you a Jap or are you a Chink?" And would say, "We're neither, we're Americans." And I can really remember distinctly saying that. But that was the only thing I knew about...

KL: Do you think they were people who lived nearby, or who would ask you?

JM: People that would also be down walking along the waterfront. They also had cars that used to stop and say they'd give us candy if we'd go for a ride, but we were all trained to say, "No, thank you," and run in the opposite direction.