Densho Digital Archive - Michiko Wada Interview (denshovh-wmichiko-01-0011)

<Begin Segment 11>

KL: So I just have one more sort of topic about Manzanar. Did your father ever come to Manzanar?

MW: Yes, he did. He was able to come back. We really had a... we couldn't celebrate it because we had nothing to celebrate with, but they did come. It wasn't just him, one of my friends, I told you the father was there, he came back. I can't remember all the people that came back, but they were able to come back. It wasn't like going back to the home, but it was... I'm sure he was in a similar type of... I don't know. Although where he was was not a desert. I used to pass that desert going to Vegas before. [Laughs] But, well, that's where... my husband told me this, he remembers a lot more going, because we don't go to Vegas, women don't go. My father didn't want us to, not golf, because I was a golfer, to (gamble). And he was against that, women should never gamble. He would tell me he'd be in a pool hall, and I said, "What's a pool hall?" I've never seen a pool hall. Well, anyway, that's what he used to say. And he said, "Don't put any nail polish on and lipstick on." And I used to look at my sister and said, "Well, that's not going very far," so we took it with us to school and put it on when we got to school. That's what we'll all do. But that's that age. I can still remember my sister telling me. "You're going to get heck, you better take it off before we get home." So that was when you're young, that's what you do.

KL: But you did celebrate when your dad came?

MW: We did celebrate. I don't really remember what we celebrated with, probably whatever my mother had collected or my brother had brought back, a little bit. But my dad used to say, "Don't celebrate, we don't need to celebrate." He used to tell me, I used to say, "But we're just happy to see you back home," you know. Well, he didn't know what kind of condition we lived in. And because of the sandstorm, everywhere is sand, it's just barrack on stilts and things. And so they would ask for seeds, of lawn seeds, they would plant lawn seeds so that there wouldn't be dirt, so much dust and things all over. I mean, it was amazing the things... and they asked for tarpaper to put on the outside. I mean, you know, the beams are open (...), you can hear someone sneeze, you can hear everything because it's open. It's just a barrack and it's just wide open on top so they had to put plasterboards, they had to do all of that. But they were pretty handy, those old men, you know, it's amazing. But that's what everybody had to do.

[Interruption]

LP: Back after a brief break, I wanted to continue with some of the questions about your father. So you talked about celebrating, but did you notice him changing at all as a result of...

MW: He was always a little quiet, but then he didn't talk much about where he was. And so we figured he didn't want to, so we didn't ask too many questions (only), what he wanted to volunteer. As in the conversation all of a sudden he would say something, then we would ask some questions. But otherwise, they were pretty mum about it. I don't know whether they were told that, they had nothing to say, they were embarrassed, I don't know what it is. Because I felt bad for my dad because he was young when he came here and he worked so hard. And he obeyed the law like you wouldn't believe, and that's why he had us, so strict with us, things to do. And he really didn't converse much about the camp, I wish that I had pushed him a little more, but I didn't. I thought that was not something I should ask if he isn't going to volunteer. And in a Japanese family, that's what it is; you don't do that, especially to older people, meaning your parents. And my mother was younger so she would tell me, "Now, don't say anything like that," or something like that, but my dad wouldn't. He was very tolerant and he just let us ask or say things. But he was quiet, he didn't really say much at all. I never did get anything (out of him). My brother would tell us when he was in Bismarck and all of that. Not much, but he did tell us about talking to the young people and things like that, but my dad wouldn't at all.