<Begin Segment 20>

RP: Did you have, when you were in Reno, did you have a community of other Japanese Americans that you got together with?

DI: Uh-huh.

RP: Was there a church that you went to?

DI: No, we didn't go to church there. But we'd have, one family would always have a New Year's Eve party, 'cause they lived a little bit out of the city. And we'd all go over there for New Year's Eve, and I'd leave the kids home with my parents, and the two of us would go.

RP: So you tried to keep connections with the other...

DI: Connected with them. And to this day, I'll pick up the phone and I'll call my girlfriend 'cause she lost her husband. And so we chitchat about the good old days.

RP: What was their family name?

DI: Fukui.

RP: Fukui?

DI: Uh-huh. I think they had a laundry in, she grew up in Carson City, and the family had a laundry business there. I don't know whether it was it was cleaner and laundry, but that type of... and so then our old friends that grew up in Sawtelle, he moved to Reno eventually, too. And I think they're back in San Jose and just, just two days before Christmas, I called up there to, I said, "I'm not calling you to wish you a Merry Christmas, I'm calling just to wish you, let's hope for a good year in 2008," and he died Christmas Eve. There was a Nishikawa family, grew up two doors down the street, there was five boys, and he was the last one. So one by one, and here he's still here at ninety. [Laughs]

RP: Did you get a chance go out and explore the Nevada area at all, taking trips on Sundays or weekends?

DI: Oh, we went out to parks a lot, because we had the two kids.

RP: Where did you go?

DI: We went to... where did we go? We went up toward, on the road to Tahoe, there's a, was it Mono? [Addressing husband] We went somewhere along there and you used to go fishing. We'd pack a lunch and go there, I remember. And then there was another lake down south Virginia, and oh, we went here and there, yeah. Just to get the kids out.

RP: Did you go to Tahoe, too?

DI: Yeah, we went to Tahoe. Pack a lunch and go up partway, and sometimes we went all the way up to Tahoe, yeah. Pretty place, very pretty place.

RP: Nice place to spend the war years.

DI: Yeah. [Laughs] Yeah, so in Reno, I didn't work at all. [Addressing husband] You worked for the, Chevrolet agency first, and then you went to Beckworth Airport? I can't remember.

RP: Have you been back to Manzanar ever since...

DI: Yeah, we didn't go this year. We go, we've been going to Mammoth. This year would be our thirty-third year with the whole family, except for my daughter. My two boys and their families and my nephew and his family, we'd all rent three condos up there and spend a week. This year, I think they decided to go in August, but he said he didn't want to go anymore. Pretty place.

RP: You were sharing a story about Tom was an assistant scoutmaster? And can you tell that story again about the fact that you didn't have a vacation?

DI: That was our vacation. [Laughs] My daughter to this day talks about, "That was our vacation." So we held on, they put stew or something in the big pot, and then they'd go hiking for the day. Like he took 'em up to Mount Whitney I don't know how many times. And my daughter and I stayed and fed the fire so that at least when they came back, they'd have stew, right? And to this day, she said, "Yeah, we stayed and kept the fire going for 'em." It was pretty country up there.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.