<Begin Segment 9>

LT: Today is Monday, February 24, 2014. My name is Linda Tamura, and I am interviewing Jessie Harry, a Nisei who lives in Portland, Oregon. We are at the Oregon Buddhist Temple in Northeast Portland. Ian is the videographer, and Betty Jean Harry, daughter of Jessie, is also joining us. So we are continuing part two of our interview of Jessie Harry and her World War II experiences. So, Jessie, you and your mother and father and your two younger brothers had left Hood River. You were at Pinedale Assembly Center and Tule Lake concentration camp in Northern California, and then you and your family moved to Minidoka. And where was the Minidoka camp located?

JH: It was in Twin Falls, out of Twin Falls.

LT: Okay, Twin Falls, Idaho.

JH: Idaho.

LT: And when you first saw Minidoka, what was your overwhelming memory?

JH: How... I know, because it seems like it was barrack after barrack after barrack, no matter where you looked, there were barracks all over. And then a great big building that was a mess hall.

LT: And what surrounded the barracks and the mess hall?

JH: There was no trees at all, it seemed like, except when we entered there were... so it was very dusty.

LT: When you saw this, what did you think?

JH: "Is this where I'm going to be for the rest of my life?" Not knowing that we would eventually be able to return home.

LT: That must have been a tough feeling for a young girl who was probably about fifteen at that time?

JH: Yeah, I think so.

LT: What else did you say and do when you saw that?

JH: I don't think I did much of anything. And the worst part of it was we were in Block 19, we were the only family from Portland, I mean, from Parkdale. The rest of them were way down on Block 30, so all my friends were not with me. So we'd take turns, they'd walk up one day and then I'd walk down one day, and that's how we went to be together.

LT: So you were still keeping in touch with your friends from Parkdale?

JH: Yes, uh-huh.

LT: And you lived in different blocks?

JH: Yes.

LT: What is a block exactly?

JH: It's just... is it three families to each barrack? I think that was, three or four. And then we were in Block 19, and I don't recall how many barracks were in Block 19. And then we had a great big mess hall and a laundry facility.

LT: Okay. So each block then had barracks and a mess hall and laundry facilities?

JH: Yes.

LT: Okay. Can you talk about the mess hall?

JH: It was just a great big mess hall, and we'd line up, I think we lined up and got our food and sat down and ate.

LT: Okay, and what did you eat?

JH: It was usually more like Japanese-type food if I remember.

LT: How was the food?

JH: It wasn't... I didn't think it was very bad. [Laughs]

LT: Okay. And what about the laundry facilities and the restroom?

JH: Restroom and shower was one big area, and I don't really recall much of it at all.

LT: Was there privacy?

JH: No, I don't think there was.

LT: And so when you visited your friends in Block 30, you had to walk a long distance. How far was that?

JH: It was quite a ways, I just don't recall the mileage. But it was quite a ways. Because we were in one end of the camp and they were in the other end of the camp.

LT: And you said sometimes it was really dusty?

JH: Very dusty. The wind was blowing.

LT: Can you talk about what that dust was like and how it affected you, especially when you were walking?

JH: It was fine dust, it blew when the wind would come up. But then I just took it for granted and kept going.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.