<Begin Segment 16>

RP: So when you got to Reno, did you move in with your parents?

DI: Uh-huh. They had a two-story house.

RP: Where was that located?

DI: 215 Maple.

RP: Maple.

DI: Uh-huh, not too far from the University of Nevada.

RP: Did they own the house?

DI: Uh-huh.

RP: And your dad was still running this bingo parlor?

DI: No, I don't think so. I don't think so. But we saw a lot of people that left Manzanar and went to Reno and they would call and say, "We're at the railroad station." So we'd go and pick 'em up and my mother would cook breakfast or whatever. We stayed up all night and took 'em back to the railroad station. We saw more people headed for Chicago, basically Chicago.

RP: So you kind of had a, like, an overnight hostel service.

DI: Yeah. [Laughs] We just didn't sleep, we just stayed up, chatted.

RP: Chatted?

DI: Yeah.

RP: That was, must have been very nice for both of you, especially them, to see somebody who was in a similar situation. Do you remember any of the families at all, or anybody in particular that sort of sticks out, of all those people who came?

DI: Oh, that came over and might have stayed?

RP: Yeah.

DI: Oh, we saw so many people. [Addressing husband] Can you remember any of them? [Laughs] He can't remember either.

RP: And how were they feeling about their, you know, going...

DI: I think for so many of 'em, I think they were just glad to get out.

RP: Out of camp?

DI: And they were looking forward to, basically most of them were going, headed for Chicago. 'Cause I think they had a hostel out there.

RP: They had several.

DI: Uh-huh.

RP: We talked to a woman yesterday who actually, with her husband, started a hostel there.

DI: Oh, uh-huh.

RP: And she had over a thousand Japanese Americans, most of 'em, I think --

DI: Lot of Quakers, I think.

RP: Quakers helped, too.

DI: Yeah, reached out to them.

RP: Wow. So you'd get a call every so often.

DI: Every so often, they're at the Reno railroad station waiting for the train. Doesn't leave 'til tomorrow morning, so we'd go pick 'em up. My mother would make breakfast or whatever, and stayed up all night and chit-chatted, yeah. It was, we saw a lot of people.

RP: Maybe you saw the whole, a thousand, too.

DI: No, maybe, I don't think quite that many. [Laughs]

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.