<Begin Segment 26>

SG: So what happened to your family during the war?

BO: Our family, they were in the stockyard, and they had a big powwow there whether to stay or go, and I told them don't take camp life and get out, get out in the open and work. We're at war. We need lots of sugar and this and that so go out there and work, and they choose to do that instead of going to camp. So my folks didn't go, did not go to Minidoka. Like my big sister, she went to Minidoka, but she has a son and daughter in Japan. Son gets caught in the military, and that's the one they can't find. And daughter, my brother Henry who went to Tokyo and found her and saved her and then got a job to work under an officer and then wanted to come to Washington, D.C., and he came to U.S. And they were trying to force her to give up the U.S. citizen and work for them. If they do, they give them a good job, but she didn't. She just hung onto it, and they came home with an American citizen. See, we're dual citizen, you know.

SG: So your family, where did they, where did they go work instead of going to the camp?

BO: Okay. They went to CC Camp in Nyssa, and they worked in sugar beets or onion or stuff like that, like a Mexican. But as the hoe wore out, you got no more work because there's no hoe available. So they sent a letter to me if I could buy some hoe and send it home. So in Minneapolis, I got about a dozen hoe, and I told them to, I'll pay the hoe here and then you go collect the shipping over on the other end, so they did that. And they went, picked up the hoe, and paid the shipping. And you think I get paid for hoe? Hell, no. They didn't pay me for the hoe. I said, "That's fine, no more help." That's the end of it.

SG: What happened to your parents' land during this time, the farm?

BO: The farm, that was leased. See, that was leased. So if it was leased, and then you had to move out, just have to leave everything there; tractor, truck, car and everything. You had to leave it because we are at war. You cannot tie anything up and expect to win a war. You had to let the people use it to, so they let the people use it like the wheel tractors about worn out. Tractor, they had tied up at another place. The truck, they were using it left and right. Of course the truck, you got a truck and it was brand new. The little baby, you follow him to the barn, and he ran over his own son. I left that out, you know. He ran over his own son, and Henderson was living on 181st and Powell. He said, "This isn't right. I'm going to go up there." And he went up to the farm, and he took the truck. He got, gathered the wheel truck, wheel tractor and this and that and personal belonging and load up on the truck and brought to Eastern Oregon. Of course, personal property is being ransacked, and what's left, he gathered it and brought it up out to Eastern Oregon. And my brother will tell me that Mr. Hen, of course, Mr. Henderson is passed away now, but I sure would like to see him and thank him for it. There's a lot of good people but lots of dumb people too.

SG: Do you have some examples?

BO: Huh?

SG: Are there some stories?

BO: No. That's about all because I wasn't here, just that I was away, and they were telling us about that.

SG: So your family wasn't in the camps and only your sister was working in Minidoka?

BO: Huh?

SG: You said your sister was at Camp Minidoka? Your sister was a nurse at Camp Minidoka?

BO: Oh, my wife.

SG: Your wife was?

BO: Yeah.

SG: And your sister was at the camp also?

BO: Yeah, cooking there, working there. So then I went to camp one time, got a pass go in. The guard says, "You're not allowed to go in." I said, "What do you mean? I got a sister I want to see." Then I said, "Who is your commanding officer? Where is your corporal at arms or sergeant at arms. Give me their telephone, so I could call up Washington, D.C. because I'm from the MIS." You know, he kind of got scared. He says, "Here, sign this and you can go." He let me in, yeah, because I wasn't going to fool around with that kind of stuff. Kid yourself if you don't have a corporal or sergeant or guard or officer on duty. Anything could happen an then what you got? Nothing, no back up.

SG: Where would you stay when you visited camp?

BO: You could stay anyplace. They put me up.

SG: What would you do while you were there visiting?

BO: Huh?

SG: What did you do while you were visiting?

BO: Visiting the other people, feel sorry for them.

SG: So how did you, when did you decide -- after how long... you met your wife there at Camp Minidoka and how long after that did you decide to get married?

BO: Oh, we got married there. We got married there because we got no time to be wasting. We had to go to Ogden and get the papers over there. A blood test, I got that at Fort Snelling before I left, and we had to go to Ogden and go to courthouse and get the paperwork. It's just a bunch of hassle back and forth and you know and find Kimura, Mr. and Mrs. Kimura to, the only parent presiding. Everything rush, rush, rush, no time.

SG: So how long did you know your wife before you were married?

BO: We didn't know each other at all. We just went by what they tell us. And then when we get together, then we were going to the outside, and then we're going to work like hell and then try to catch up, go to school whatever I can get a hold of and do it, and then, so that our kids when it starts arriving, we had a lot of money, and somebody got to stay home all the time. But the grandma was there to take care of that. Parent wasn't able to help.

SG: So did the war end soon after you were married? Did you leave the military soon after you were married?

BO: I didn't leave the military after I married. War ended August, war ended in August '45. We got married in August 31st in '45, and I stayed in until all this big mad rush is over until it simmered down the last, get organized. Then they found a sergeant from San Francisco that he's going to take over, and then that's when I moved out, and that was in January of '46. When he took over and I see him at the San Francisco reunion, oh, he just blew up. All the promise they made, it didn't mean nothing. They didn't give me a promotion or anything like that, what they promised, and he was really mad. And I told him if you worked so hard at that time, I would have explained to you what the whole deal is. You have to stay and take it and like it because these officers are interested in themselves and want to go out. They're not going to stay and help you. So he had to figure it out all by himself to survive. Oh, he was mad, Jerry Taniguchi. I didn't promise him all that. I was trying to tell him try to take it easy. If you want to help, help, but otherwise, stay out of it.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.