<Begin Segment 11>

YW: So she stayed there 'til March, from March until the time that we were able to move.

RP: And were you the only Japanese American kids in your, in that small one room school?

YW: Uh-huh. Just the families that went, were traveling together.

RP: It must have boosted the enrollment, seeing as how...

YW: I don't know. But I remember --

RP: And how were you received by the other students?

YW: I don't even remember the other students. I just, I just remember that I missed my mom so much that I couldn't think of anything else. 'Cause I was the baby of the family.

RP: Seven, eight years old.

YW: I was six years old.

RP: Perfectly natural.

YW: I was talking with my sister the other day when they were here for my brother's funeral and she was saying, "Don't you remember when we had to move?" And she said, "Mom came to me and said, 'You're grown up now. You're eight years old. You could give up your dolls.'" So she took her dolls and my sister remembers taking really good care of her dolls and mom took it and gave it to the child of the family that she was staying with while she had the baby. So my sister was very upset because a few years later she saw the doll and that person hadn't taken very good care of her doll. And she can remember that to this day. She had to give up her doll when she was eight years old 'cause her mother told her she was grown up now, she didn't need to have dolls. Isn't that interesting what we remember?

RP: So you lived in the barn of this, this farm area, this barn. And, how were you treated by the family where you stayed?

YW: I don't remember, remember seeing him but I heard later that at the time that he was letting us stay, us five Japanese families stay on his farm, he had a son that was in the service fighting the Japanese. So I thought, "Oh, he must have really had a big heart to allow us to come and stay." But we went back to visit the son maybe about three or four years ago. And he was really, really nice. And he, he couldn't remember a whole lot because he wasn't there when we were there but he was willing to show us anything we wanted to see on his farm. The barn was still there. But my husband says, "I was expecting a huge barn the way you talked about it." But it was a little barn. But I guess it was huge 'cause I was so little. But the barn was still there. And the chicken coop was still there and the stone house was still there. But, we didn't see the hut and a few of the other buildings we talked about.

RP: Yoshimi, did you recall the names of the other Japanese families that caravanned with you to...

YW: I remember the Konishis and the Fujitas. Let me see, who else? I heard there was a Maruyama, but I don't remember them. But I can't remember the others. I remember the Konishis because they were almost like relatives to us. They were really good, good friends. And the Fujitas, I still keep in touch with some of the children. We went to see him a couple years ago. We went to see Ben. Ben was the same age with me. And he had some memories, too. He was, he remembers my oldest brother, who just passed away, he said he used to herd sheep with my brother there on the, in Boise, Oklahoma.

RP: In Boise, Oklahoma?

YW: Uh-huh.

RP: I was gonna ask you, yeah, if your older brothers actually did work on the farm while you were there.

YW: Uh-huh. And I guess my father did that, too. But I don't remember. I just remember playing.

RP: But your brothers...

YW: Uh-huh. It's interesting, they had a windmill and the only time we could get water was when the wind was blowing and the windmill, windmill was working. And it was interesting when we went back there three years ago, the smell, it brought back the memory of, of Boise. It was, it was always kind of windy there. It was windy the day we were visiting. And the windmill was still there.

RP: Yeah, it gets... it's all still, still back there.

YW: Uh-huh.

RP: Was there a, was there a particular sight, smell, or sound that you associate with the farm in Niland?

YW: You know, I can never find Niland. I could never find our farm. I mean we drove through on the bus. There was a family on there, that, they were our neighbors in Niland. And she was quite a bit older than I was. She was about my oldest brother's age. So I thought she would remember more but she says, "I don't remember any of this." She says, "You remember, you seem to remember more than I do." So I was really disappointed that I couldn't go and see the land, the exact area where my father farmed. But I couldn't find it. I'd like to go back again one day with my sisters and see if they could remember it a little bit more. But Ben, when I met with Ben, he brought a friend along. What was his name? Archie, forgot his last name. But he said he remembers us and he drew a map and brought it when we met with him, of where we lived from downtown Niland. So, I have that map yet and I want to go back and see if I can find it.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.