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LT: Another example of your making do and figuring things out. I want to go back to postwar because your husband Ray was one of the first three Nisei to return to Hood River. And first of all, I'm wondering what had you learned about Hood River during the war time?

DS: Well, I didn't know anything about what happened to Hood River, for people in Hood River, until I got married, until I met Ray and got married and came to live there. Then I found out.

LT: And what did you find out?

DS: Ray had a scrapbook. He kept a scrapbook of the Hood River News, the ugly things about the Hood River News about the American Legion, and he kept scrapbooks from the newspaper and stories about when he first came back. And that's when I learned how bad it was in Hood River. Of course, like in Seattle, it's a bigger city, we never faced that kind of discrimination. And Ray's life after he came back, that was really, really sad, because those three guys, I think one was your uncle, right? Seth, and what they went through and how people treated them, I mean, the discrimination was just prevalent, I mean, everywhere you went. I remember Sheldon Lawrence writing a story to the Hood River News, he was a captain in the service, and he came home one year and he went to get a haircut at a barber shop in Hood River. And while Sheldon was sitting there, he said this Japanese American soldier came in, dressed in uniform. And the barber told him to get out. He says, "I don't give haircuts to Japs." And Sheldon wrote that in the paper, in the Oregonian, he wrote to the Oregonian. He was just appalled by it. But I think the treatment of the Nisei returning to the valley was, I think it was unheard of. I never heard of such hatred as existed in Hood River.

LT: What did Ray say about his experiences when he came back?

DS: Well, he said that living in the house and they'd hear noises, and they were so scared, they thought somebody was going to come do something bad to them. And he said Mr. McIsaac, who owned the McIsaac store, he was such a good guy. He gave them groceries, and they couldn't buy gas anywhere, they couldn't go to, they were just really, and Mr. Linville, Clyde Linville, who was, I don't know what his title was, but he helped them a lot.

LT: The WRA rep?

DS: Yeah, Mr. Clyde Linville, who I got to know later, 'cause Clyde lived in Hood River for a while, too. But Ray thought it was just horrid. He thought it was just horrible that the people... and his property was taken care of by John Cooper who was a neighbor down the road, and everything was just like he left it. Ray was so lucky the house was still there when he came back, and Ray felt he was so lucky that Mr. Cooper had taken care of his place, and a lot of people lost their farms and bad things happened. Mr. Cooper was very honest and a good guy, and he took good care of Ray's orchard.

LT: So once you learned about the situation in Hood River and how Japanese had been discriminated against, what did you think? Did that affect how you interacted with the community?

DS: No, I was aghast. I mean, I could hardly believe what happened in Hood River. But again, I chalk that up to wartime hysteria, that people, if they don't, I mean, go with the majority, they're looked upon on their own side from other people as traitors, siding with the "Japs." So I was horrified to learn of all that happened. But my feelings toward people did not change, I mean, the people in the valley, because I think it was all wartime, to me, it was wartime hysteria and the way people reacted.

LT: Once you lived in the valley, did you face prejudice?

DS: No, I never did. I never did. Parkdale used to have firemen's dances and everything, and I remember dancing with some of Ray's friends. And they'd tell me, "Now, Dorothy, just be sure. Nobody's going to do bad to you." You know, they were very encouraging to me, as someone coming from outside, and being a member of the community. They were very encouraging to me. And I never faced prejudice here in the valley. Like I think by the time I got here, I think there still was prejudice, but I don't think it was as bad. I think there always will be prejudice, I mean, jealousy. I think that's what festers it, jealousy among people. But I never was faced with anything like that.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.