<Begin Segment 10>

JK: You had an opportunity to go to Salt Lake City and not be at Minidoka. How did that happen? How was that arranged or worked out?

MO: Well, I think it was... I guess my mother and my brother must have discussed it, because my two older brothers, they went to Salt Lake. And because they went to Salt Lake, I got permission to go to Salt Lake. I think they thought I was going to stay with them, but what I had to do was find a place to stay on my own. And I stayed so that I could go, stay with a family that has a child or children, and I was to babysit the children when I'm not in school. But I did have to have permission to go to school, I wanted to finish my schooling.

JK: So what year in high school did you start going --

MO: I must have been just ending sophomore year, had junior and senior year, two years in Salt Lake.

JK: Did you stay with the same family?

MO: No. After summer break, I left and found another one.

JK: Okay, so you would, during the summer, where did you go? Did you stay in Salt Lake?

MO: Yeah, I stayed in Salt Lake, but I don't know what I did. I must have stayed with a friend... I had a friend that I made immediately, she had me stay with her during the summer and go back again to school.

JK: When you were in school, in high school in Salt Lake, because you were working, babysitting, were you able to still participate in school activities?

MO: Yes and no. I would ask if I can, do such and such. The one family was old enough that they didn't need twenty-four hour type of babysitting. If they were younger, well, then, mother wants the relief of babysitting her child, so she expected my full time, so I couldn't do it. I had to take a choice on that if I want to participate anything, too much.

JK: So what kind of high school activities in your high school did you participate in?

MO: That's a good question. [Laughs] I'm, athletically I wanted to play softball, tennis, after the school time, and I had to make arrangements with her if I could stay an hour after school let up. Nothing seriously, because I know I have to work my share during the busy time of hers, that's what I'm there for. So when she's going to prepare dinner, I wanted to be sure that I was there to help her take of the child while she was cooking and things like that. I was fortunate; it was always one child that I was taking care of.

JK: Were you able to make friends in high school?

MO: Oh, yes, uh-huh.

JK: And they didn't treat you differently?

MO: No, 'cause they didn't know, they didn't have anything about leaving. They didn't have to leave.

JK: And they accepted you even if you were Japanese?

MO: Oh, yeah.

JK: So what good memories do you have of Salt Lake, or were there any memories that --

MO: Salt Lake is a very nice place to go. They were all very kind, they were very church-minded people, and I honor that. I don't want to be a Mormon or anything, but they are nice people.

JK: Did you miss anything about not being with your mother and sister?

MO: No. That's kind of funny because I didn't expect to be by myself so young, being thrown into school all by myself in a strange city. But I didn't miss this much. At first I was lonesome, but after I got to do this the next three, four years, I got to learn this, how to be by myself.

JK: So it turned out to be a good experience for you?

MO: Yes, it was.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.