<Begin Segment 21>

RP: The, then later on, I think it was in June of 1944, you finally decided...

TM: May.

RP: Was it May?

TM: To relocate.

RP: And why Chicago?

TM: Why Chicago? I had friends going there. So there were five of us. And we, we took the bus, the Greyhound bus, instead of taking the train. That was a miserable trip. [Laughs] It took us five days or something to Chicago at that time.

RP: Who did you go out with?

TM: One, one fellow from Terminal Island, George Tani. I don't know if you've heard that name before, but he was one of my classmate when we were younger and... and there was a guy from Santa Monica, Cole, Cole Yamada. And Mas Hama.

RP: And that was another adventure.

TM: Yeah.

RP: Going to Chicago.

TM: Yeah. You go, you go to the WRA office and they gave you $25. [Laughs]

RP: So what was, what was Chicago like? Did you get a job right away or did you just...

TM: Yeah, I mean, well, see, I picked up that dental technician job and so when I went to Chicago it was pretty easy to find a job. I started working as a dental apprentice and I worked there for a while, about a year. And then I went to, I went to Seabrook because there's five of us and my younger sister was the only one living with the parents. So I guess the folks got kind of lonesome so they wanted me to stay so I decided...

RP: You went to visit and they...

TM: Yeah, they talked me into staying. So I stayed in Seabrook.

RP: What were, what were your parents in Seabrook for work?

TM: Working at...

RP: At the plant?

TM: At the plant, yeah.

RP: Do you know what their jobs were?

TM: Well, like my mother, I guess all the women worked on the line, conveyor line. And then the men, men folks worked as a, like a saw operator. They, they do a different kind of job, like feed, feeding the line and all that kind of stuff.

RP: Uh-huh. How did, how did your parents end up going to Seabrook? Was there somebody who came to the camps and recruited them?

TM: No. I influenced them.

RP: How?

TM: I was in Chicago and I went to Seabrook. And I had some friends there, so I went to see the condition there. So I went back to Chicago and I influenced, I talked my parents into going to Seabrook. You know, that's across the country, huh? But I talked them into going there and that's how they ended up there.

RP: Huh. And so you spent how long there? A year?

TM: Oh, my whole time?

RP: Yes.

TM: Yeah, I went there in '44 and went into the army in '46. So, two years.

RP: Two years.

TM: I was in there only two years, yeah.

RP: And you worked as a dental technician...

TM: Yeah, I went into town and got myself a job as a dental technician instead of working at the plant.

RP: And for, for many, for many Isseis and other people coming out of the camps it was a pretty, kind of positive situation for them.

TM: Oh, I think that was a real good thing. Well, the pay was small but people who had a big family, all the kids went to work, their mother and father and then they... actually when they first went there, there were no rental and they provided you with all the other things like, they provided you with the coal and furniture so it was a, a good thing. I think quite a few of the family, they had a big family, they, they made money there. [Laughs] Yeah, even though the pay was about what, sixty cents or seventy cents an hour.

RP: So in your, in your thinking it was a place for people to get back on their feet again?

TM: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think my parents really enjoyed it over there. They made a lot of friends there and yeah...

<End Segment 21> - Copyright (c) 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.