<Begin Segment 6>

AI: Well, either way, as you say there was a period where then the voluntary, so-called "voluntary evacuation" was cut off.

MK: Yeah.

AI: And, but before you were actually forced to move out, as I understand it, each family had to sign up and register and receive your family number in preparation for the mandatory removal.

MK: Yeah.

AI: What do you recall from that time of getting ready?

MK: I knew there was something like that, but my older brother handled those things, so I didn't know too much about it. But I know there were certain restrictions and we had to comply with government orders. Like you say, how many in the family, and things like that, the names and ages and everything. So I think the government had, had pretty complete files on all the families.

AI: Well, when you and your family found out that you were definitely going to be moved out, how did you find out, and what was your reaction?

MK: Well, somehow, it's like I say, word of mouth. We didn't officially hear anything from the government, but we heard from the people, community leaders that on this day, you come to this Mountain View Railroad Station and get on. They didn't say where we were going. But later I learned that we were going to Santa Anita Racetrack. And by golly, they were right. That's where we ended up.

AI: What did, what did you bring? Now, excuse me, did your family own any property or anything at that time?

MK: No, we were leasing. My sister, I think she just barely got twenty-one. But under the conditions, the feelings and everything, I don't think my father and mother wanted to buy anything. And we had a, we lost our strawberry crop because we got evacuated in the spring when the, just before the berries got ready to pick. So the people that got, took over the farms and, vegetable farms and stuff like that, they did real good.

AI: Would that have been about May of '42...?

MK: Yeah, yeah.

AI: ...about May. And so you, all the families had to go to this spot in Mountain View?

MK: Yes.

AI: And then what happened?

MK: Well, we couldn't carry too much. All we can carry, that's all. Most family had just about maybe about four, five suitcases for the whole family. And that book, All You Could Carry [Ed. Note: narrator is referring to Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese Internment Experience edited by Lawson Fusao Inada] is really true. If you could carry ten suitcases, you could carry them. But how can you carry that many? Kids were small and everything, and mothers couldn't carry anything because they had to carry the little kids. So it took the father and the oldest sons to do it. It's really true. We went with all we could carry. That's a true phrase. [Laughs]

AI: And were you put on trains there in Mountain View?

MK: Yes, we were put on trains. I don't recollect... people say we had to lower the binds -- blinds and everything but, I don't remember that too good because it's been so many years. But I guess there were safety precautions so people won't shoot, shoot rifle shots into the train. When we went to Santa Anita, it was kind of a shock because for the first time in my life, I saw, I saw so many Japanese. They were already there. God, there was a lot of them.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2001 Densho. All Rights Reserved.