Densho Digital Archive - Rose Niguma Interview (denshovh-nrose

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RN: So I came back to Portland because my mother wanted to. And all the while I was on the train, I mumbled and grumbled and thought of my mother. I thought she should follow wherever I go, but I just thought, and I was mumbling and grumbling. And then I notice there was a drop of water on my cheek, and then I realized that subconsciously, I was crying because I was so happy to see all the Portland familiar landmarks. Then I told myself, "Stop mumbling. You're glad; you're happy to be home." And I said, "I am home." And I was glad because we missed the trees because Minidoka was sagebrush country. It's very dry, arid, and we have coyotes yipping and howling away at night. We had ticks. If we're not careful, we might run across a rattlesnake. We saw a rattlesnake there. And they have king snake and other pests that we never knew of. And we lived in the barracks, and the barracks were tarpaper covered. There was no insulation. So in the winters, it was very cold and the wind just howled, sounded like what you hear in tales, and it really howled. And I thought, well, it must be the Indian spirits resenting our intrusion, and I said, "Well, you shouldn't. It's not our fault." We were forced here, I told them. But we were young, so our house was on the corner; so naturally, we, the wind was buffeted more. If we were in the middle, we wouldn't have that. We'd have more warm. But that's what it was. So George, my older brother, my younger sister Marie and I all worked. My mother couldn't because she suffered from ulcers, and she wasn't very strong. But she kept our little room as clean as she possibly could. And the front part, she dug and planted a garden to keep her occupied. So that's how we lived there.

But when we did return to Portland, WRA helped us, helped me into a University Home that was a housing project that was near Portland University. It was in that section of town. When I went, when they found the room for us, I had to have a job. Because of my nursery school experience, it was a necessary position for wartime because the mothers are off during war working in shipyards, and so they thought they might try to find a job for me there. But I think the head was little reluctant because they thought they might not like me because me being a Japanese American. But Mrs. Freedman who's working for WRA told the person on the opposite phone, she said, "Before you reject her, look at her." And I felt very American, so I looked Americanized. That's why Mrs. Freedman noticed it, so she said look at her first before they even reject me. So I went to the nursery school. And tentatively, I stood on the first row and I thought, oh my, and I looked at them. There were mothers there and see what their reaction would be. So when I was looking at them and we're looking at each other, one of the mothers looked at me and smiled. I thought, oh my. I smiled back, and I thought, well, I think they accepted me. So I did work there, and they did accept me, and I worked there for about a year.

Miss Meritree was the supervisor there, and she has an assistant named Kathleen Whalen whose brother was a very prominent union person at that time. His name was Ed Whalen. They're Irish. They were both very kind. They asked me while I was working there if I was happy. I says no because my idea is to return and attend art school which was in, my ambition, but so many things kept coming up across my path that it was impossible to do because my parents separated after I graduated from high school, so that was completely out of the picture. It was Depression and business was slow, and the neighbors were suffering too because of the Depression. So there was nothing for us to complain about because we were all in the same boat.