<Begin Segment 12>

RP: So after a month, you were back on a train again.

FY: Yes, Tule Lake.

RP: You went to Tule Lake?

FY: Yes.

RP: Was that a trip that you took at night?

FY: No. I think it was daytime, but we had to, on a train, and they told us to close the blind so people won't see, see us.

RP: How did you feel as you were going up on that train? What was your mindset like about...

FY: Well, my parents kept on saying, "We did no wrong. So all this will be righted sometime in the future." They were very encouraging. Our parents were very, very encouraging.

RP: Did you feel somewhat discouraged?

FY: Yes, uh-huh. We were all very discouraged and frightened.

RP: What were your impressions of Tule Lake when you arrived there?

FY: Oh, there was not one tree there, but the ground was covered with, it was a lake before, just covered with shells. And Japanese are very artistic, and then they -- you've heard this before, I'm sure -- they gathered the shells and made pins, ornaments, out of it, necklace.

RP: Did you make some of that jewelry?

FY: Yes, I made some of those. Everyone was making little pins and things like that.

RP: Do you still have some of that?

FY: No, but let's see. My father, I think, was carving some birds, and I think my daughter still has that.

RP: So he took up some hobbies in camp?

FY: Yes, that's right. We all did. There were a lot of talented people, so they decided to share their talent with us. So I remember I took knitting, knitted myself a warm sweater.

RP: For people like your father who had worked really hard and probably...

FY: Yes. He had tuberculosis, he came down with... tuberculosis was very rampant at that time.

RP: And he accompanied you on the trip to Tule Lake, or did he come later?

FY: He... let me see now. No, he was already isolated, and those sick people came, came in a different train, and they were put in the hospital right away.

RP: And how long was he isolated in Tule Lake?

FY: The whole time.

RP: The whole time?

FY: Uh-huh. Well, we weren't in the camp that long.

RP: About a year.

FY: Oh, two years.

RP: Oh, was it two years?

FY: Uh-huh.

RP: So...

FY: But I, they said that after about a year, they announced to us, "If you have a prospective job offer someplace, then you could be free to go there." And I did have a, I had a friend who was from Hawaii, and she was settled in Chicago. And so she said, "I found a job for you," so I left camp to become a dental assistant.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.