<Begin Segment 10>

BH: And how do you get from the assembly center in North Portland to Hunt, Idaho?

AK: Well, I went on a sleeper because I was carrying Jayne, and I wanted to make sure that I didn't lose it.

BH: And were you able to see any of the scenery when you went by?

AK: No, the shades were down.

BH: What were your first impressions when you got to Minidoka? You talked about the sandstorms, what else did you see?

AK: It was so isolated. I think they had just built the camp, and I don't know, it seemed like it was so isolated. We made it more home-like later, though, ourselves.

BH: What did you do to make it more home-like?

AK: Well, there weren't very many things to work with, but then we did make them more home-like.

BH: Now, you arrived at Minidoka probably in September in the fall of that year?

AK: Yeah.

BH: Okay. And then when was Jayne, your first daughter, born?

AK: December 14th.

BH: In December. So what was it like to have your first baby in an internment camp?

AK: It was kind of sad to think that we were in an internment camp. But then when we went to the hospital, they wouldn't let us come home until two weeks, and we were in bed all that time. You can imagine when I first walked, got up and walked, it was so shaky. But it was nice to be able to go home.

BH: And how did you come to name your daughter Jayne?

AK: My husband named her after a movie star.

BH: After who?

AK: Jayne Mansfield.

BH: Jayne Mansfield, okay. Did you think about giving her a Japanese name?

AK: Yes. You know, we have a grandmother, so they would... let's see. What was her Japanese name? I forgot what her Japanese name, we never use it.

BH: Okay. So does she use it as her middle name?

AK: Hmm?

BH: Is that her middle name, her Japanese name?

AK: Yah.

BH: So what was life like in camp after you had Jayne?

AK: Well, you know, we had to go to a mess hall to eat, do our laundry in a common... even the bathroom, showers, was all in one place. And so, you know, we spent a lot of time in that, because we had to wash. I remember we didn't have a washing machine. Some people did, though, but we didn't have it so we had to do it by hand. I know when she got a little older, we'd take our kids with us, and the kids would play among each other.

BH: Washing diapers by hand?

AK: Yeah, wash the diapers by hand, everything by hand. Later on, though, some people got their washing machines, so they were able to use a washing machine, but not us.

BH: How did you get baby clothes for your new daughter?

AK: They did have a canteen there on Block 39. I can't remember if I took any with me or not. Probably did, I probably did.

BH: And did Kaz work at the camp?

AK: Well, he went to work over at Hazelton, which is not too far, because he used to walk home on the weekends and bring home some apples.

BH: So he worked on a fruit orchard outside of camp during the week and came home on the weekends?

AK: Uh-huh, and he would bring some apples. Sometimes, you know, we had to have food stamp in those days, so he would bring a little bit of meat or something, which is special for us.

BH: And you had ration books, right?

AK: Right.

BH: What was the food like in the mess hall?

AK: I don't know, it was always the same old thing, I guess. I know sometimes, especially if you have like smelt, when the smelt run in the Columbia, the garbage can would be full because people wouldn't eat any. I remember that.

BH: Do you have any other memories around food at camp?

AK: We didn't like the lamb there, either.

BH: We've heard from others who said they didn't like the mutton, and it took a long time before they would eat lamb again after coming out of camp.

AK: Yes.

BH: What did Mr. and Mrs. Kinoshita, your in-laws, do to spend their days?

AK: Oh, my grandma, I called her Grandma, she worked on the farm. She's a farmer, so it was natural for her. And then my father-in-law worked with the hens, poultry farm.

BH: So gathering eggs and having chickens to be able to eat at camp?

AK: They never brought anything home, no.

BH: Oh, okay. Were they paid for their jobs?

AK: Let's see. They were paid eleven dollar, was it? Doctors were paid nineteen dollars... was it eleven dollar?

BH: And so you could use that money to buy what you needed in the canteen, baby clothes. Did you ever think about or talk about the reason that all these Japanese people were in camp?

AK: Well, I know we thought it was very unfair, that we hadn't done, we didn't do anything wrong. But then we never said that to our children, though.

BH: You grew up in a couple of places as a child in Washington and then married into a family that lived in a community that was composed of more Japanese families. What was it like to suddenly be around all these other Japanese people?

AK: I know I had a hard time at first, because they didn't laugh in my face, but I'm sure they laughed behind our backs, because I spoke such broken Japanese.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.