<Begin Segment 15>

RP: And so you found some work in Denver?

SY: Yeah. And then we were, went in the back of a truck when we found a truck that was going into Denver from Amache. And we rode that truck about two hundred and some miles, in the back of that truck. And...

RP: You shared with me the other day a story about going to a diner in Denver...

SY: Right, I'm coming up to that.

RP: Oh, okay.

SY: And then after reaching Denver, my goodness, we haven't had nothing to eat for two hundred and some miles, that's a long time, maybe six, seven hours, back of a truck. The bus the other day made it in what, four hours or so, three hours? Yeah. Anyhow, we're at this little small hole in the wall restaurant eating away, and then who comes to collect the dirty dishes? Is my friend Joe. He's standing right there. We were at the same camp. Who ever... why... how is it that we could, in a thousand miles, how can it ever meet at one place at a given time? It was amazing. Then from then on, he was my brother, my brother. Everything we've done, we've discussed it with each other. Everything we plan, we discussed it with each other. We went to work in the sugar been fields, and then we worked for ten days. And then after gettin' paid, we were supposed to get meals, housing, and then there's supposed to be laundry and they were supposed to do it for us. They deducted everything. Could you believe? Dollar thirteen cents a day we worked. And we worked hard for that man. For ten days, we worked hard for that man. My brother got so mad he said, "The hell with this money. I don't need your kind of money." And then he took off. We stayed there because we didn't have any place to go. And about four days later, here he shows up with a cowboy, a Japanese cowboy, born and raised in Colorado, done his time as a military... he was a, he was in the military. But he was, you know, he had finished his military term. And he was a gun-packing cowboy. He had a gun. Japanese guy with a big old hat. Took us over there to Laramie, Wyoming, and we worked over there in Laramie, Wyoming, at a construction outfit called... what was it? I couldn't even bring that name up. Anyhow, we worked there for about three months, we worked there and then we get a call from, from... get a letter from Mom that she's back in hometown, so we went back.

RP: Oh, you went back at that point.

SY: Cold, was it ever cold. Today, if I stick these hands in ice water, they hurt so bad. And I think I might have froze it. You know what I mean? Yeah. But normally when the temperature warm like this, I don't feel any pain. But if I put it in hot, I mean, cold ice water, man, I die. I feel like I'm dying. Icicles standing from the wall maybe four, six feet, you could hit that thing and make it, make it ting.

RP: So, what did you get into after... you shared with us this story about your unwelcome reception by Mr. Morioka.

SY: Oh, Morimoto?

RP: Mr. Morimoto. And you left and where did, where did, what did you drift into after...

SY: Well, during that time or before... what's his name? Man named Naoto, Naoto was my brother's real good friend. He married a gal out of Cortez and she was, she was the eldest daughter... what was their name? Gosh, almighty. Anyhow, they were talking that certainly people in Tule Lake wouldn't have place to go. A lot of 'em wouldn't have place to go. A lot of 'em have places to go, but certainly a lot of 'em didn't have places to go. So consequently they borrowed a two-ton truck from, from our employer Merwyn and Yelin in Clarksburg, California. And they went to Tule Lake and then they might have had a clue as to who to go see or what. But they went to the administration building and told 'em, "Hey, we've got employment in California. That if you want to come along with us, we will transport all your housing goods in the back of the truck and bring you, and you could come with us if you want. But then if you could make it down there in a certain given time, we could meet you at the train station. So consequently through that, he immigrated somewhere... transported somewhere like fifteen families to Merwyn and Yelin. And they were farming close to, oh, three, four thousand acres. And they were need, in need of help. They were in need of people that would be able to operate their equipment, laborers to go in the fields, to clean the fields, or whatever, change the irrigation pipelines day or night twenty-four hours a day, and we did it. We did it for two years. And after two years my brother says, "I cannot work and honestly collect money from somebody else's sweat." See, he was getting money from the landlord because he had supplied --

RP: Laborers.

SY: -- so many people, so many laborers. But he says, it's working on my, my feeling that it is not right. So that's what happened, and within that group was the, was Mr. and Mrs. Shintani, the people I had told you about, Missoula, Montana, where this man found his way home and the daughter was sitting at the commissary. And they, they came and they worked at the, at the ranch. And through that they become engaged and married and then that's become my sister-in-law. It's strange how things do work out sometimes.

RP: Uh-huh.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.