<Begin Segment 14>

KB: So the war is finally over, and you and your family get to leave Minidoka. So do you remember hearing about that day?

SO: Oh, yeah. Everybody heard about that day.

KB: And what was the message that everybody heard?

SO: They were really happy.

KB: Were you worried at all about where you might now go? Were you thinking about going back to the same place?

SO: Yeah, there was a worry on that, because we didn't have a place to really go back to Portland.

KB: Do you remember your family making the decision to go back to Portland?

SO: I think that's about all we knew was to go back there.

KB: So your family didn't have any... your dad didn't have a job lined up or anything like that?

SO: No, he didn't.

KB: So it's that last day in Minidoka. Do you remember what was going on, all the activity that was happening, what was going on?

SO: Yeah, we were one of the families that were left. Lot of 'em took off earlier because they had a place to go back to. But we got invited by the Tsuboi family. My mother, I guess, was very good friends with them.

KB: And they invited you to...

SO: Yeah, they had a house, I guess.

KB: So you guys were going to live with the family?

SO: Yeah, 'til we can get located.

KB: And they were in Portland?

SO: Yeah.

KB: Do you remember the journey home from Minidoka?

SO: No, I really don't remember the journey home.

KB: You remember the journey there, though, right?

SO: Yeah, I remember that.

KB: But not home. Do you remember that feeling of maybe, free and leaving?

SO: Yeah. But then there's... you didn't know what's going on in the future.

KB: So some uncertainty?

SO: Yes.

KB: So when you get to Portland, did you go by train again?

SO: Yes. They gave you a pass or whatever to get back to wherever you're going, I guess.

KB: So each family member received a pass to go home, or to go back? Do you remember when you got to Portland, how that felt or what your first impression was, had it changed?

SO: Sure, in three years, I guess, it did change. But I'd never been out in the southeast before. It was a big change, because they had a house in the Southeast Gladstone, I think.

KB: Did they meet you at the train station and take your family there?

SO: I can't remember that journey.

KB: You talked about storing items in a storage unit when you left. Were those items still there when you returned?

SO: We didn't pick them up right away, we waited until we were settled more.

KB: But they were there. So your first day when you returned back to Portland, did you have your own room in the house, did you have to share?

SO: We shared a couple of rooms. They had just had Mr. and Mrs. Tsuboi, it was just the two of them.

KB: So it was your brother, Terry, and your sister, and you and your mom and dad living in the home?

SO: I don't know if my brother, I think he stayed at the church when he came back a little earlier, a month or... to go to high school. He had about a year and a half to go.

KB: So Terry left Minidoka earlier than the rest of the family?

SO: Yeah. And he stayed at the Epworth Methodist Church.

KB: Did he live there?

SO: Yeah, he lived there for a little while.

KB: At the church itself?

SO: Yeah.

KB: And that was... the reason he came back early was...

SO: To start the high school. You can't miss out that much.

KB: What high school did he end up going to?

SO: Lincoln High School.

KB: Is that the one that's downtown in the Portland State area?

SO: Portland State.

KB: So he lived at the Epworth, did you get to see him very much?

SO: No, I didn't.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.