Densho Digital Archive - Mitsue Nishio Interview (denshovh-nmitsue-01-0017)

<Begin Segment 17>

KL: There's another event at Manzanar in February of 1943, the government passed out draft surveys to men and a leave clearance survey to women and Issei. What do you remember about that?

MN: Well, my husband... see, you have to choose between America and Japan, but, he chose America, but I don't remember too many, though.

KL: Did you and your husband talk about it?

MN: Oh yeah. He wanted to be an American. He is an American citizen, and he wanted to stay in America and be loyal to America. But other, some people said no to the question so, called "no-no" gumi, went to Tule Lake. Like the Uenos, from Tule Lake they were, they went to Japan.

KL: It sounds like it was... a lot of people did not know what would happen based on their answers. Did you have any fear about answering the questions, or did you ever consider different ways of answering them? Or was it just pretty straightforward for you?

MN: It wasn't too hard. All question was yes and no, not too many other questions.

KL: Where did you complete the survey?

MN: There was, each block, like 22 had a block office, block leader there, and the block leader and his secretary, each -- there were thirty-four blocks -- each block has a block office. That's where they would get all the information. Comes from head and block leader. Block leader explained to us.

KL: Who was the block leader in 22?

MN: My block leader was my friend's husband. He was educated here. He was Nisei. He passed away long time ago, but if he's alive he's over a hundred, hundred-something I guess. He passed away, but he was block leader. Because he, his English, he graduated high school here and Nihon, Japanese is good too, so he's bilingual. Most of block leaders were good in both English and Japanese.

KL: What was his reputation? Was he popular, or did... it sounds like kind of a tough job, to be block leader.

[Interruption]

KL: Mrs. Minimiki's?

MN: Minamiki, Minami-ki.

KL: Minamiki. And you were saying she was a good teacher.

MN: She was, she was a very good teacher. She has a lot of experience, because she was a teacher before we went in the camp.

KL: Another thing that we wondered about, we talked about the block leader and you said his wife was a friend of yours. What was his name?

MN: Frank Yasuda. Frank. I have their picture, a framed photo. His wife and I went to same girls' school in Japan, and after I came to America she got -- she's a year, exactly a year older than me, but she got married a couple years before me, so they were already living, had a little boy and were living here. And found out my husband's big sister's married to this Frank Yasuda's big brother, after we found out. And we were friends in Japan and became kind of relatives, so we were really good, really close to each other.

KL: What was her name?

MN: Her name, same as my name, Mitsue, Yasuda. Her husband was Frank Yasuda.

KL: What was she like? What was her personality?

MN: She was nice, nice lady. She, they have five children and they're all good children. She was the nicest person. That's what everybody said.

KL: Did she have a job in Manzanar, or she cared for her kids?

MN: No, no, she... I didn't have a job either. No, she didn't have a job.

KL: Where, you were far apart from your older sister and also from your parents.

MN: My, after the war she came to Los Angeles. She used to live in, my sister used to live in Seattle, and from Seattle she went to a camp called Tule Lake, and when Tule Lake closed up she came down to live with me for a little while. She wanted to, she didn't want to go back to Washington State. Too cold.

KL: Were you able to communicate with her while you were in Manzanar?

MN: My sister? Yes. We could write to each other. She made my daughter a beautiful dress and, crocheted a beautiful dress and she sent it to me. Yeah, she was a really good seamstress, real neat.

KL: Could you tell if Tule Lake was very different from Manzanar?

MN: I don't, about the same, I guess. About, toward the end a lot of people are getting, not loyal to American government, they were sent off to Tule Lake, so maybe a little bit of difference, but I guess about, the way she talked, about the same. Same buildings, same mess hall, around the same way.