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MW: You know, my father in Tule was... where was he? Was there another camp that they... was there one in New Jersey?

LP: Santa Fe?

MW: Huh?

LP: Did he go to Santa Fe?

MW: Yeah, I've heard of Santa Fe. Who was in Santa Fe? Somebody... what was Santa Fe?

LP: Your father?

MW: No, not my father, but who was in, I mean, what kind of camp was Santa Fe?

LP: it was a Department of Justice camp, it was similar to Bismarck in South Dakota.

MW: You know, 'cause Santa Fe is so familiar, I've heard of that. Now, you know, I can't remember, was there another one? Okay, so Santa Fe and Bismarck?

LP: Yeah, there were a few. Off the top of my head, I'm not sure what they all are.

MW: I'm trying to think, you know, I don't remember my dad being at Tule. Now, why was that? It all had to do with those questionnaire things, and I didn't see the questionnaire, so I don't really remember much of it.

LP: Did your brother or your dad... it doesn't seem like they talked a lot about their answers on the questionnaire or anything, but did you get a feeling about if they were interested in being sent to Japan at the end of the war or renouncing their citizenship?

MW: No, I was surprised when my brother was sent to Bismarck, and I said, "Why in the world would you want to go somewhere like Japan?" It may be your ancestor, but you don't know anything. And any country, going (to) is difficult. How do you make a living? So I thought it was strange, but I didn't question it. Because we're not supposed to question everything, you know. As much as I was inquisitive, my mother told me I was too inquisitive, but I did want to know. It wasn't in a bad way, it was just knowing, trying to find out. But it was just too much things and they just never would tell me.

LP: Were there rumors in camp, not anything your parents or your family might have said, but things that were just kind of being passed around, as what it meant for people being sent?

MW: No, I didn't. I didn't get that, because there were some young boys, but they're not interested, evidently. And the people in there where I was working didn't say too much when I was there unless they said something when I wasn't there, I don't know. But there wasn't much said, that's why I didn't quite understand. I didn't understand Tule; I didn't know what that place really was. It was so different than Manzanar, and I wasn't sure. I never did know. And then all I know is when they said we could leave, I told my sister-in-law -- oh, that's what I remember. My mother had left earlier, and she went to stay with a friend, 'cause now they lost their house and the property and everything in the shed was gone (...). And so they had nothing there. So she was staying with some friends. And so my sister-in-law and I with her two kids, was gonna leave, we said, "Where do we go?" Well, they had all these hostels set up in churches. All that meant was wherever the church's hall is, they had blankets or sheets or whatever it was separating the next cot to the next cot. And then when we got back, told my sister-in-law, "How in the world are we supposed to stay here? Everybody's snoring, how do you sleep?" And so we kind of laughed about that, but that's when one of my friends, I don't remember who it was, came in and said, "You know, only way you're gonna get out of here is for you and your sister..." oh, my sister was there, too. She was married already, but her husband -- see, that's it, Santa Fe sounded familiar, I think her husband was in Santa Fe, why, I don't know, 'cause I don't know what people they took over there. I didn't understand all of it, and I had nobody to really ask. And so anyway, when we were in the hostel, this lady came and she said, "You know, you people are not gonna ever get out of here unless you have a place to stay. And the only way you're gonna get food and shelter is going (into) domestic." And I said, "I hate domestic. When I get married I'll have enough domestic then." But she said that's the only way. And so all my friends, all the girls, they went all over Beverly Hills, (...) and they had these people wanting the young people to come. So they had the flyers all over the place.

And I went to work for one in Beverly Hills, and he was a doctor and she was a doctor and she had two boys. Oh, those two boys gave me such a headache, and I'm not used to taking care of little kids. In fact, I used to tell the lady, "You know, there's something spoiled in the refrigerator." Guess what it was? It was those moldy cheese whatever you call them. And so I had never had 'em, I've never seen 'em. My mother didn't... Japanese people don't eat much cheese, so that's why I'm not too crazy about cheese. I'll eat some American cheese, but if they're really smelly like the one that's molded... so I told her that they were spoiled, (...) "I've never seen (cheese like) that, I just thought it was spoiled."

Anyway, I was there, and then I had asked her... and sure, you get room and board then, you take care of the kids. And so I asked her one time, after I was there for a while, if I could go to a night class. I was near Hollywood High School somewhere, and could I go to class and just take the class after I'm done, after the children were asleep or whatever it was. She said sure, so I used to take the bus and go, and I thought, "What could I do?" I didn't know what to, what do I look for? Office work to do what? I'd never done anything in an office. And so I thought, okay, regardless of what, just take the job. Just take it and learn, all you can do. And so, like I said, I took the (state) typing test, I knew I could type, (...) but beyond that, I didn't know what else I could do. So anyway, I told the lady, she said, "I'll pay you overtime, I'll pay you (more), so stay with us." I said, "I'd like to, but I need to do something for myself and I don't know what I can do. I need to go work." So I walked the streets out on Seventh and Hill and all over out there by Broadway. We walked and went into everything. And so the people walking, people we didn't know, would say, "If they say they'll call you back, just keep walking." So that's what we did. But somebody did call me back at my mother's house. Back then they didn't have cell phones or anything, you know. And so I called them back and they said, "The reason why we didn't let you know right away is because we had to ask the employees if there was any problem with having a Japanese worker." And I said, "Oh, okay." So they said that they'll hire me and so I took the job. I did everything, and I thought, "Learn everything." And so I have a girlfriend that lives not too far from here, just about five minutes from here. She's a Caucasian girl, she came to work at that place when she was eighteen, she (just) got out of school, and she's looking for a job. And I said, "You're not going to find a job with a good paying money, you have no experience." I said, "Take this regardless of what pay they give you and learn, that becomes your experience. I'll teach you what I know." She was over the other day, can you imagine? That's almost, that was in '45 or something. We've been friends ever since, amazing.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2014 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.