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GH: My stay in Minidoka... oh, let me go back just a little bit. We were loaded into these train and coaches, windows were darkened, for some reason they didn't want us to enjoy the scenery. Anyway, after a length of time, we arrived in Minidoka, Idaho, and for many of us, we'd never been to that part of the country. It looked like another world, another continent, but the camp was built there. We went again through barbed wire fences. And this time, the barracks were arranged by blocks, so many in a block with a central mess hall, laundry, shower, that type of thing. I noticed there were high water towers scattered throughout the area. In the camp, we ran from Block 1 up to, I don't know how many blocks there were. Again, I wasn't there too long, but it was somewhere I'm sure I didn't want to be. You're enclosed again, and the monotony, I think, would have overwhelmed me.

Anyway, I got a notice that I had been accepted to leave camp to go to school in the Midwest, and I applied through the National Student Body Relocation Organization, and I think Mrs. Hana Yamada was working for them and she liked me. We grew up on the same area, and I was accepted by two schools; one, Earlham College in Indiana and the other was Ohio Wesleyan, Delaware, Ohio, and I chose the latter, and correspondence with them must have started, and I was to leave on a certain day. I was taken by truck to Shoshone and boarded the Union Pacific headed back east to Ohio. Now unfortunately, I ate a meal in the regular camp mess before leaving. By the time I got on the bus, I had acute runs, acute case of intestinal diarrhea, and it was a horrible trip through Omaha. I was in and out of that john with horrible diarrhea getting dehydrated by the hour. By the time I reached Omaha, I knew I had to do something. There was a layover. I got off, finally found the pharmacy, and he sold me a bottle of Pepto-Bismol, and I immediately started taking that. And most fortunately and thankfully, I didn't die of dehydration, but the diarrhea finally calmed down. By the time I reached Ohio, as exhausted as I was, there wasn't any more stuff coming through me, and so that was my initial and horrible ride back east.

Now Ohio Wesleyan is in a small town called Delaware. The main industry probably is the university. And it being a Methodist oriented school, religion was one of the things that was foremost among the campus, you know, academic activity. Anyway, I was chosen to stay or room in a Episcopalian minister from England and his wife, his daughter, and son and I stayed there, and I have pictures of their house. And for eating purposes, they put me, gave me instructions to find a coop there. A coop is for the low income students, and they do their own menu, balancing the budget. And after several meals at the coop, I thought the camp food was almost better than the coop food. I had trouble adjusting to the coop diet. So until things happened, I made friends with some theological students who went out of their way to help me and befriend me, and they were working themselves in the girl's dormitory as busboys and dishwashers, and they encouraged me to apply for a job. They said the work isn't hard and the food is just great. So I did, and I was accepted. So twice a day, I would walk up to Monet girl's dorm, change my clothes, and man the dish wash. And then all the busboys and dishwashers would, you know, eat together, and we had all the ice cream we want and the meals were very wholesome, tasty, and I was very happy with my life. So as I was getting adjusted to the academic portion of college life, my room and board situation is pretty well in hand.

One day, the dean of men called me, and he was talking to me and I, you know, listening, but I wasn't really understanding what he was saying. And the gist of the message was, "George, you're fired, you can't work there anymore," and I was shocked, and he didn't go into the details of why I was fired. Anyway, I went to my fellow workers, the theological students and told them what had happened and what the dean told me and he said we'll look into it, see what in the world's going on. Anyway, they did and found out that someone had complained about a Japanese working in the dorm, and the dean of men, I don't know whether he consulted a committee or took it upon himself, gave me the notice that my job was terminated. Anyway, the theological students were successful talking to people that could be of help, and one of the people was the editor of the student newspaper. I don't know his name and I forgot the time of the year, but anyway, he wrote a scathing editorial denouncing the unfairness of my being fired and the reaction is such one of the student body that the dean had been backed up against the wall, and he rescinded that, you know, firing order, and he called me in and said if I wanted to, I can go back to work there, continue. And I wasn't that resentful of being fired, and I gladly accepted the job, and I'm glad I did because later on, the other Niseis that came -- followed me in working up there.

And some of them are pleasant moments occurred there as a busboy/dishwasher especially after some of the other Niseis came; two in particular, one was from Portland. His name was Minor Azuma. We were in the Japanese sport club together, basketball club together. He's a very energetic, good looking, popular, tremendous personality, outgoing kind of fellow, good singer. And another equally energetic personality, why -- that's another thing I found out among Niseis that I grew up, some Niseis couldn't get along with hakujins with no difficulty, and others have a tougher time, and I was sort of in-between. Anyway, Minor and George and the two theological students, brothers, George and Jim Hickman and the other person named Chris Yekasef or something like that. I think he was Yugoslavian. He was a music major. We all got together and decided why not form a singing, you know, busboy group or waiter's group and sing before the girls before we serve them or afterward, entertainment. And with the help of the music major, we created really a nice repertoire of two songs, and the one I remember is "Easter Parade" by Irving Berlin, and our arrangement was great. So we practiced and smoothed it out, and we performed before the girls, and it was a smashing success, and they wanted us to sing on other occasions too. And that was one of the highlights of, you know, of being in Ohio Wesleyan, and the other was I didn't go to the Episcopal church because my background was Methodist. I remember they had two Methodist churches the student body from Ohio Wesleyan attended. I went to one Asbury Methodist Church. The reverend there was extremely nice, cordial, helpful, and I became a regular member of the church, went to church services without falling asleep, enjoyed the sermons immensely, and felt part of the congregation. He invited me to his home and meet his family, and the whole bit. And Minor and George were staying about a half a block up the street from me in the home of a missionary, a Methodist missionary who'd spent time in China. They had a lovely garden in the backyard, so we were well-protected and good home environment, and I studied hard, I was making the honor roll. Everything was going well.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.