Densho Digital Archive - Minoru J. Shibata Interview (denshovh-sminoru-01-0021)

<Begin Segment 21>

KL: Were there other Japanese Americans in that area?

MS: Oh, yeah, quite a few. There were quite a few Miyagishima families with the same name. That means that they came from the same prefecture in Japan. Quite a few, surprisingly more than I expected, farming in different areas around there. Not everybody in Roy, but a place called Clearfield, Utah, there were many farmers in that area in a place called Layton, I believe. Can't remember many of these names anymore.

KL: How did they receive you guys?

MS: Pardon me?

KL: How did those other Japanese American people receive you coming into that area?

MS: Just fine. I guess all those farmers got along with each other. I suppose they had many social get-togethers with other farmers. Of course, Japanese farmers were not the only farmers around. There were other Caucasian farmers. Most of them were very friendly, they had friendly relationships, helping each other and getting along well. They were just not crop farmers, some farmers were, raised... or milk farmers, and what else? Cows, okay... anyway, there were other animals around in other farmers. The farm that we ended up in, as animals, they just had horses that they used for farming.

KL: Were there other Japanese Americans who came into that community as a result of Executive Order 9066 and removal, or was it...

MS: A few. We found out later that, yeah, there were others who were under the same situation that we were, we got into.

KL: But it was a minority of people?

MS: Yeah, very few, very few.

KL: What was your school?

MS: First when I arrived there I ended up in a, what I call a farm school. I was in the eighth grade at that time, so I finished my eighth grade attending that school. And that school was, their schedule was oriented more for farmers, because when the farmers, when it got busy in the farm, kids were excused to do the work on the farm. And I guess they were not penalized for their absence, things like that. But anyway, I went to a school in the eighth grade there and finished the eighth grade. But then by my next school year, my father had already come back from his camp and joined us and we moved to Ogden, Utah. So my next school was in Ogden, Utah.

KL: So your dad came back in the summer of 1942?

MS: Sometime in the summer before my next school year.

KL: Do you recall the name of the middle school?

MS: No, I don't. It could have just been Roy school or something like that. The name doesn't... I just can't recall.

KL: How were relationships there between the established kids and you coming in?

MS: There were no problems there. One of the daughters of the families that invited us was... I think she was either in the same grade or anyway, same school, she helped me introduce myself to the new class, and no problems. Basically no problems there.

KL: And then you said when your dad returned, you moved to Ogden?

MS: Yeah, after he returned, I think he had to satisfy certain obligations for being invited to stay with the same sponsor that sponsored us to his farm. And I guess the obligation was to... as I recall, it wasn't to work on his farm, but at least be engaged in an activity that satisfied. But they had to satisfied according to the people from the camp, or of the camp.

KL: What was that? What did he do for work?

MS: I remember, okay, he ended up working in a cannery in Ogden, Utah.

KL: When he came back, did you notice any differences in him?

MS: Uh-huh. He gained a lot of weight. While he was a fisherman, that's a lot of exercise, you know, being a fisherman. So I guess in the camp he gained weight. But he lost that almost immediately after he started working.

KL: Did he say anything about what days had been like?

MS: Didn't get an opportunity to really have a conversation or maybe I wasn't even interested to find out anything that I couldn't understand.

KL: I was pretty self-absorbed when I was that age. You know now, though, where he was, right? Would you tell us where he was?

MS: Yes, he ended up in a camp in North Dakota. I think the name was mentioned by your notes what the name was.

KL: Yeah, Bismarck was a big Department of Justice...

MS: Right. And I didn't know where he had ended up for a long time.

KL: So he was just gone and then back?

MS: Yes.

KL: What was it like to see him again?

MS: Formal at first, like greeting him back and everything else like that. But the absence really didn't make much difference in our relationship.

KL: Do you think the same was true for his, for your mother and him? Did they just kind of pick back up, or was it changed?

MS: I think so. No, I think my mother was very glad to have him back. Because previous to then, my father had all the control of what went on in the family, and the wives were obedient to whatever the father or the head of the family controlled or whatever. Like almost any other Japanese family.