Densho Digital Archive - Michiko Wada Interview (denshovh-wmichiko-01-0012)

<Begin Segment 12>

LP: So after the questionnaire was issued, at what point did you become aware of what the answers that your family had given meant? Did you know that particular answers meant that people would be moved to Tule Lake?

MW: I found out much later. I didn't really realize that at the beginning at all. And I don't know the reason, I think I asked... see, the thing (...) in Japanese culture is you don't ask a lot of questions if your parents decided on something, too much. You do ask because I'm nosy and I want to find out, so I would ask. My sister would never ask things like that. But I knew that was their culture was not to question their parents constantly. But I was being... I was just curious. To me, that's what it was, so I would. But they didn't talk too much about it. It's all what I can remember. But knowing them and knowing their culture and knowing how they were, I knew my dad wouldn't tell us much unless I was pushing him a lot, but I didn't, because that was out of respect, you didn't do that, so I didn't. But he did eventually with other men came back, so they were happy about that.

LP: So when did your family leave Manzanar and go to Tule Lake, do you remember?

MW: No, I don't remember that. It seemed like it was doing more toward the winter months somehow. And I don't really... I don't know why it is I don't remember too much about Tule. Is it that I had (put) it out of my head? Well, now, see, my brother and they were all ready, they had put them into, went to South... was it Bismarck, South Dakota?

LP: South Dakota.

MW: Uh-huh. So they were already there, and that's when they told us, when we had moved to Manzanar. And my sister-in-law, his wife had two children, they were both born in Manzanar, I can't remember when the other one was born, maybe '43, '44. Because I think we left in '44, wasn't it, to Tule? Or was it '43? Well, I don't know. It could have been the end of the '43 or beginning of '44. See, and for me, I couldn't figure out why we were moving to another camp, which wasn't exactly any better. I think we had more room, that was about the thing, because my sister-in-law was married, they had one entryway to get in, and then there was a room here and room here. That was the only thing, because my sister had gotten married but her husband was Kibei. You know what a Kibei is? He was a Kibei, so he was sent to... where was that? Not Dakota, New Jersey? There was another camp out there for guys like him who were raised in Japan. He was born here, went to school a little bit, raised in Japan, and brought back. We used to hate people like that, because the guys would always think they were better than us when we came back. And we would just make fun of them and all of us young people that were born out here. Because they wanted their way, and the guys always thought that they were head, that girls shouldn't... that we hated. So we were always trying to cut him off and things like that, which was mean, but that's, when you're younger, that's what you do.

LP: What point was your brother separated from your family and sent to Bismarck? Was that around the time that your dad was arrested?

MW: No, my dad came back to Manzanar, so he was back already. But I think after we've been to Tule that he was taken. And then I couldn't understand that either, why would he... I said, "What did you put on it?" Well, you know, he's not going to tell me. I'm not going to understand, that's what he would say. Because I'm just a little kid, that's what he would always say, so I didn't ask him. But I knew that's what it had to do, but I wished I had remembered or had seen the form or whatever he signed, or read some of it, but I didn't. I had to leave it up to him, my mother told me to just leave it to him, so I did. But then that was dead wrong, what he was thinking, because where is he going to go? He doesn't know my mother's side or dad's side. Nobody's ever met the cousins, aunts or uncles or whatever he would have left. And so I thought that was strange at that time, but I didn't quite understand it, and I didn't ask my sister-in-law because she had two kids and she was too busy so I just didn't ask. But it was really a strange time, and I couldn't... it made me feel like we were too disloyal (...). Why are they going against it, why are they asking such dumb questions, and that would make you mad enough to put "no." And I thought, "Why would they do that?" But there was no answer, so you just let it go. I think that's what most of us young people (did) at this time. But when we were in Tule, the one thing I remember is we had to go to a Japanese school, there was a teacher that taught at that time. And I'm thinking, why do we have to go to Japanese school? We were already out of high school, you know, and I was thinking, "Why do we need to know any more of that?" But I didn't go long enough even before the war or during Tule to be able to read the paper. I can still... my niece would send some things, and then they'll have hiragana written on it, the easier part of it And I can just about figure out what it is. She had given me, it looked like a real lightweight wafer thing, and I opened it, and it's dry. And inside there was green things, and I thought, "What is this?" I thought it was cookies, she had given me a bunch of cookies. But it's too thick, and when I broke it open, there's dried green things in there and some other color things. And I thought, you know, this is not a cookie, this is something... and then inside there was a small packet (...) that looked like a sauce of some kind. And I had to figure it out, and I had to sit there and think and think and think. Then I found out that if they have a sauce, it's a soup. It's a little packet, it's a broth, and you put hot water in, and then you put all the dry ingredients, and they puff up. And the outside looked like light wafer cookies, there's no taste to it. You put that in there for taste, and everything starts to get the flavor of whatever flavor they had. And I thought at least I can read that much. I had to try to figure it out, because the children didn't know. I sent them to Japanese school but they didn't study very much. I know what it's like, because that's what we did when we were young.