<Begin Segment 16>

TM: Can you, we're going to talk about school. Can you describe your new home in Vanport, what that was like?

FP: It was a small apartment with I'm going to say two bedrooms but I don't recall the second bedroom if I did. It was, I think, maybe a small one with one larger bedroom to accommodate us as a family.

TM: And your grandmother was with you, your mom and dad, your brother and you.

FP: Yes.

TM: Who were your neighbors?

FP: There were quite a few Japanese neighbors in there, right. And then my brother, I had shared with you previously, my brother had left. Well, they put him in the Fairview State Home for the disabled, and that was when he was six years old.

TM: Was that in Salem?

FP: Yes, and so that would be, what, he was born in 1940, so '46, okay. '46. So about the time when we got very close to home. He wasn't seven, I know that, I think six sticks in my mind. So I, like, '46, and then that's the summer I went to Seattle to work. And Grandma and Grandpa loved that, because they had no relationship with me otherwise, right.

TM: So right before you went to your grandparents' during the summer, your brother was sent to Salem?

FP: I don't remember the exact particulars, I just know that he was, the choice was made. And in those days, the choice was institutionalization rather than your raising a disabled child by yourself. And what determined that decision was (my parents) felt that they had to put me in a situation where they had a chance of educating me and so forth. So I don't want to dwell on unfortunateness for other people, but for me, it turned out to be a really helpful decision on my education and so forth, and my effort, Mom and Dad's effort to assimilate me and integrate me. So it worked out okay. But I always, I always carried that on my shoulders, that there was so much riding on, that I do be successful. And in the Asian community, you get that: "don't you slough off, you study hard," and so forth and so on, right. So, but I felt it even more because I knew that they sacrificed my brother for me. So I'm grateful, but I feel a bit of guilt there, which is, I guess, would be natural to feel both ways.

TM: In Vanport, can you describe what Vanport was like at that time? Who lived there?

FP: Right, it was a conglomerate. One section of town had the Afro American, and it was mostly served by an Afro American school. And then in my area there were Asians and Caucasians and so forth. But it was a polyglot that formed, because these people, it was housing for the shipyard buildings, right. And we hear a lot about how the black district, the Afro American district got integrated into the north by places like Vanport city.

TM: So the black migration from the southeast (of the USA), and here they are living in Vanport and Portland together, and there is, as you said, a Japanese American community was actually there in Vanport as well.

FP: Yes. But not super well-met, because it was considered temporary housing, temporary war-era housing.

TM: And were the other Japanese American families, do you know if they were from Portland originally, or was there people from all over?

FP: Most, most. I would say seventy-five percent.

TM: With school, you went to a school in Vanport, grade school?

FP: Yes, I went one year, right.

TM: And you had your teacher, Mrs. Veggie?

FP: Right, right. Isn't that a catchy name?

TM: Yeah, it is. So what was your class like, your classmates? Was it, can you just describe that in a little bit of details? They were, you said, maybe, Japanese American?

FP: Yes, yes. It was just a mixed bag. Okay, but I don't remember any blacks in my class, because I know that they had been segregated to one area of Vanport.

TM: So they had a different school?

FP: Yes. So even back then there was segregation.

TM: Did you see discrimination, either yourself or were there incidents like that, or did you observe with your African American neighbors, hardships like that?

FP: Well, I don't remember... yes, I was very young, and the teacher was very protective and was very accepting and gave out a lot of praises. So it didn't make much difference.

TM: Do you recall anyone asking you at this time about where you were from, Minneapolis or camp at all?

FP: They could have, but I just don't remember. That year just kind of flew by. And it was a year there because I just did third grade there. And by the time Memorial Day, when the flood occurred, the famed Vanport flood, we fled the waters.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.