<Begin Segment 9>

JK: Okay, let's go back to the farm, you're getting ready to leave the farm to the assembly center. How did you get to the assembly center with your things that you packed? Did a bus come and get you, or how did they do that in the Gresham area?

SI: I think... my husband was pretty stubborn, he would fight. He said, "You take away everything, how am I supposed to get my family over to that that warehouse to put the stuff in?" and then everybody had to go to the church, Oregon Buddhist Church, where they slept on the floor. And he said, "How am I supposed to do that with no transportation?" He says, "You've got to let me have (a) car." So they let him keep his pickup until the very last. And he said, "We're not going to sleep on the Buddhist Church floor. My wife is pregnant, we're not going to." [Sneezes] Excuse me. "And my mother, she couldn't sleep on that floor. We have to go to housing, government housing. And there was, in St. John's, there was this place called St. John's Woods, and it was housing for the shipyard workers during the war. But after the war was over, then the buildings were still there, nobody living in 'em, so we all moved into a house over there.

JK: That's interesting. Until you had to report to the assembly center? Or did you not go to the assembly center?

SI: We went to the assembly center.

JK: Okay, but they put you up in housing instead of the church floor?

SI: Oh, no, no. That housing that, we moved in there later. I wonder if that's after the war when we came back.

JK: Oh, when you came back.

SI: And we have no place to go to, so that's when we moved into that house.

JK: But you still, you still had to, you still didn't have a way to get to the assembly center.

SI: No.

JK: Your husband, (the WRA) allowed your husband to keep the truck to get you there.

SI: Uh-huh.

JK: When you got to the assembly center, you're pregnant, you have Patty, who's probably...

SI: Oh, no. I had her, but I was not pregnant.

JK: Okay, you weren't pregnant. Okay, so you have Patty, and is she like a baby or a toddler?

SI: She was barely walking. And then she had a little tricycle, and she would ride around on the tricycle.

JK: So how was your routine like in the assembly center? What was your day like?

SI: Well, we didn't have anything to do, you know. We just had this little cubicle that we're living in. And we went there in (May), first part of (May) we went to Minidoka.

JK: So you had this time that you were spending, what did Buddy do? Was he assigned any job?

SI: Oh, my husband? Yeah, right away he went to look for a job, he wanted a job right now. So there was employment office, I guess, and the only thing there was for him was to be a fireman. So he took it. And you got, if you were a doctor you got nineteen dollars, but if you're a fireman you got sixteen dollars a month.

JK: Okay, so he was able to earn some money. How about, were your in-laws housed with you, were you all together?

SI: We were. All through thick and thin, we were together. And Ojiisan died at ninety, and to that day, he was still living with us. And then seven months later, she died. (Narr. note: We were living in our permanent home at 1826 SE 24th Ave. when they both passed on.)

JK: So how big of a space did you have?

SI: In camp?

JK: At the assembly center.

SI: Oh, I don't know what you call it, but everybody had one the same size. And the floor, they had boards, but there were cracks between, and some people claim they saw snakes, you know. And then they had canvas walls, and they didn't go clear to the ceiling, they were about this far short, the top was open. So when you talked, if the husband's talking to his wife, he'd have to whisper. When you whisper, you can hear better. [Laughs]

JK: So your in-laws were also in the space with you?

SI: Yes, yes.

JK: So it was very crowded.

SI: Oh, in camp, I think we must have had two cubicles in camp.

JK: In camp, but at the assembly center...

SI: Not camp, but in the assembly center. But when we went to camp, we were in one unit.

JK: Well, let's go to camp now, the internment camp Minidoka. When you first got there, what was your reaction? You get off the, you come by train, you probably, they took you by truck and you get off. What was your reaction there?

SI: Well, we didn't expect too much. And a lot of people were there ahead of us, so we didn't, it wasn't total shock to us.

JK: Okay, so they had been filling you in what to expect.

SI: Yes.

JK: And tell us about your living quarters. You said you had two cubicles, right?

SI: No.

JK: No, just one?

SI: They only gave us one.

JK: With your in-laws?

SI: Yes.

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