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TI: So let's go to Minidoka now. So you were at the Portland Assembly Center from May to September, and then people are then moved, or at least most of the people from Portland went to Minidoka.

YK: Minidoka.

TI: I mean, some went to --

YK: Tule Lake.

TI: -- Heart Mountain and Tule Lake.

YK: Yeah.

TI: So tell me about Minidoka. What was that like when you got there?

YK: Well, when we first got there, it was windy and dusty. And we looked like we were out in the desert somewhere. And I guess the first, at first it was, we had these barracks standing in nothing but barren land, and nothing around there. So it wasn't too bad at the beginning because it wasn't that windy. But once the wind whipped up, being tarpaper, single layer, dust came in all over and no way of stopping it. And so the dust was the biggest enemy. And after, let's see... then the winter came, and then it became cold. But fortunately, they gave us one potbelly stove for every apartment, that was good enough to keep us warm. And coal, there was plenty of coal. So much coal that you didn't have to hoard it. Some people have a tendency to hoard, and you can hoard so much coal, but what are you going to do with it?

TI: Now at Minidoka there were also lots of people from Seattle. How did the Seattle and Portland people get along?

YK: Oh, we got along okay. I think at the beginning, people have a tendency to stick with their own kind. But after a while, like going to school and things like that, you begin to mix. And pretty soon, it got to be pretty homogeneous.

TI: So it seemed like the people from Seattle, people from Portland, were pretty compatible or the same?

YK: Yeah, I think so. But one of the things is the fact that we were in the same boat together, you know. So we kind of looked at each other and agreed that we had a problem.

TI: Were there any groups at Minidoka that perhaps didn't mix in as well?

YK: I don't recall. I think maybe the Isseis might have been that way, but I don't remember the Niseis being that way, our group. We used to... in fact, the Portland group was the, we were right next to the Washington group, and on one end, and the other end was people from Bainbridge Island were at the other end. So we got to mix pretty good. Then pretty soon we got to play football together and things like that, they get mixed up pretty good.

TI: So when you started playing sports, did your teams group around, like, a Portland team versus a Seattle team, did you do things like that? Or was it just all mixed up?

YK: Basically it was more Seattle teams. There were some... well, there was Portland team, but Portland team didn't have as many people. And seemed like after a while... I guess it kind of stayed as Portland, Seattle, Tacoma, places like that. But it pretty much, it's just the fact that you were there, it just didn't have any prejudice against any group. Portland group, you know that the guys in that bunch were from Portland, Seattle, the same way. But there were a lot of them that were mixed in, like Portland, Gresham, and Vernonia, and some Eastern Oregon people. And Washington was same thing, you got people from Fife, Auburn, Tacoma, pretty much didn't matter too much.

TI: It sounds like, for a boy or young man, there were a lot of activities for you. Because you had lots of sports...

YK: That's what I got to thinking in retrospect. They did a lot of sports because there's not much else you can do. If we concentrate on sports, your delinquency goes down, right? So there's very little delinquency in the camps, although there were some delinquents, but that was a very small group.

TI: So was it a conscious effort to get, especially the boys, involved in sports, then?

YK: Yeah, I think pretty conscious because other than the fact that what else is there to do? If you had a job, or if you worked out in the farm, it'd take a lot of your time. But if you had sports and concentrate on sports, it would probably take at least half your time, and that would keep you occupied.

TI: That makes sense. How about your mother and father? How did they use their time?

YK: Oh, my mother worked in the rec. hall next to our barrack. That was a separate barrack which was a movie house, they showed movie every night. And she was there to clean up every day, and that was her job. My father was a fireman. Not the kind of fireman you think of, boilerman, I guess you'd call it. He'd stoke the fire for steam heat. Steam heat? Must have been steam heat. Yeah, I guess... anyhow, he was a boilerman.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.