Interviews

1. Learning American cooking

2. Getting citizenship back

3. Evacuation

4. Conditions at Pinedale Assembly Center

5. Making craft items from shells found at Tule Lake

6. Response to loyalty questionnaire

7. Move from Tule Lake to Minidoka

8. Apprehension about leaving camp

9. Difficulties finding apartment in Chicago after leaving Minidoka

Peggie Nishimura Bain

(b.1909) Nisei from Washington. Incarcerated at Tule Lake and Minidoka during WWII. Resettled in Chicago after WWII

Difficulties finding apartment in Chicago after leaving Minidoka

And everywhere we went, there would be a for rent sign. We'd get there, they'd say, Oh, it's rented already, rented already. And we never could get any satisfaction, and finally we found one place, the lady took us up to the second floor, and we were so happy because we thought, Oh, at last we've got a place to stay. But then she turned around as she went to open the door, she turned around and she says, Oh. And her face just turned as red as a beet and she says, I just remembered I rented the place.

See, she didn't know we were Japanese, or she didn't realize at the time, when she took us up. And she said, Oh, I rented the place, and she just backed down the stairs and away she went. And we thought, Well, that's a fine big lie. But then by that time, we were so tired that we didn't want to stay and argue with her. But that was the way it was; we just couldn't find an apartment.

discrimination interpersonal relations racism resettlements

Date: September 15-17, 2004

Location: Washington, US

Interviewer: Alice Ito

Contributed by: Denshō: The Japanese American Legacy Project.

Interviewee Bio

Peggie Nishimura Bain was born on March 31, 1909 in Vashon, Washington. Her family was originally from Kumamoto, Japan. She was the second of six children. Married at seventeen, she had two children - a son and a daughter.

At the time of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, she was helping her parents with the three farm properties they owned under her brother's name. She was sent to the Pinedale Assembly Center, before going to Tule Lake, and then eventually Minidoka.

After leaving Minidoka, she relocated with her daughter to Chicago, where she lived for many years working as a full-time colorist in a photography studio, a skill she learned while in camp. She eventually returned to Washington to be near her parents. (September 17, 2004)

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