<Begin Segment 19>

TI: So let's go back to Minidoka, and some of the differences you said, so the Minidoka people wouldn't pick up people for rides.

YS: Yeah, especially like, say, we're way up there. So we wanted a ride once in a while.

TI: And how about in terms of fighting? Was there as much fighting going on in Minidoka?

YS: No, there wasn't.

TI: But then you also had, you were able to see some of your friends in Seattle because they were all Minidoka?

YS: Uh-huh, and some Tacoma friends. Well, see, 42 was Tacoma and them, too. We were 44. There was no 43, but 41, 42, 43, 44.

TI: So it sounds like you were pretty much on the...

YS: We were on the very end.

TI: So everything was so far away.

YS: Yeah, we were the very last one they built.

TI: So how far away, so the hospital was pretty far, too. So if someone got sick or something...

YS: The hospital was quite a ways, yeah. The hospital was way down there.

TI: Now how about school? How was school?

YS: School was 23, I think, so it wasn't too bad.

TI: And how would you compare the school at Minidoka with the school at Manzanar?

YS: Manzanar? Well, Minidoka was... I don't know, we were, I had a business law class, but then she'd give you assignment and go back and lay on the bed.

TI: So that was the teacher, she would just, she would just kind of take it easy, I guess.

YS: She said she wasn't well.

TI: And how would the schooling compare with what you were getting on Bainbridge Island?

YS: Oh, there'd be a lot of difference.

TI: So how was it different?

YS: Well, I think they were a lot tougher on the island.

TI: So the school was a lot better.

YS: Yeah, and there wasn't, school in camp was not real good, I don't think high class teachers and stuff.

TI: How about your parents? What did they do at Minidoka? Did they have jobs?

YS: Yeah, see, I forget what my dad used to do when he went out to the farm. Most of the women worked in the kitchen and stuff, too.

TI: And how about like your older brothers? What did they do, and older sister? Did they have jobs?

YS: Yeah, I forget what they'd done. See, we went out, too, after a while, work.

TI: Oh, so like farms and things like that?

YS: Yeah, picking spuds and stuff.

TI: So before we leave Minidoka, any other stories about Minidoka, any other memories? Like when, was the whole family together still at Minidoka? There were, like, two, four, six kids and your parents? So did you have one room or two rooms?

YS: One room.

TI: Wow.

YS: Well, two rooms, but one... yeah. So everybody slept there.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.