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LT: So you and your family left Tule Lake in April of 1943.

MN: Well, we didn't go as a family, we left Tule Lake to go work in Weiser.

LT: And how did you come to that decision?

MN: Well, there was a lot of other Japanese people from our town that went there, so we just followed.

LT: So you didn't wait for the "loyalty questionnaire."

MN: I don't remember that at all, no.

LT: Okay. So your family applied for work release so you could leave camp and go to Weiser to work.

MN: Yeah, just three of us kids.

LT: And what did you, what did you do there?

MN: Worked at the laundry.

LT: Can you tell us about the laundry and what your job was?

MN: Ironing.

LT: Okay, and so how many Nisei worked in this laundry?

MN: Quite a few. Maybe twenty, thirty, I don't know.

LT: And you ironed, what did you iron?

MN: Sheets.

LT: So at that time you ironed sheets to put on beds?

MN: I guess.

LT: Was it a pretty big job?

MN: I don't think so, it was just a job.

LT: And where did you live when you were there?

MN: We lived in Weiser in, there was a bunch of cabins, and all the Japanese lived there, each had their own cabins. And the three of us girls was in one cabin.

LT: Okay. Well, how much were you paid?

MN: I think it was fifty cents an hour.

LT: And something happened at about that time.

MN: Well, it was Memorial, they ask about raise, and they told us when we went that we would get a raise, but he says he can't do that. So on Memorial Day we all stayed home. Everybody, all the workers stayed home. He has to keep the laundry going so he came after everybody. And us, three of us youngest ones didn't answer the door and we didn't go. So when we went to work the next day, they said we're out of a job, going to send us back to camp. Said, "Okay, we'll go back to camp." But then the officer came and said, "You don't have to go back." Then we found a job cutting lettuce and packing lettuce for seventy cents an hour, we thought that was great. So we did that. And after that, the season was over, then those potatoes, we sacked potatoes and picked beans and just did all kinds of work.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.