<Begin Segment 20>
AI: Well, I wanted to bring you back to this time where it was not a very happy time, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and as you say, your customers were not coming back for more business. And then, of course, in early 1942, things were starting to come out in the newspaper and there were some worries that at least the Issei would be taken away from their homes. And so in January or February, at that time did you have any idea that you, as a Nisei, that you might also be forced to leave your home?
MF: Somebody told me that if you're Nisei married to Issei that I'm a citizen and he's not, that he didn't have to worry. And so we didn't worry 'cause I was a citizen. And my child is a citizen.
AI: Right. Well, but then unfortunately, in February, there, did you hear about the people in southern California that were removed from the -- they were mostly fishing people, fishermen, down there?
MF: Around the Terminal Island?
AI: Terminal Island, yes.
MF: Where were they moved?
AI: They had to get out right away. And at first they were put in some hostels.
MF: Oh...
AI: And then later taken to camp.
MF: Is that right?
AI: And then of course, up here on Bainbridge Island at the end of March --
MF: They went to Tule Lake wasn't it?
AI: Yes -- uh, no.
MF: They were the first to go.
AI: Actually I think the Bainbridge Islanders first went to Manzanar, and then some of them moved later.
MF: And then some of 'em went up, came back to Minidoka.
AI: Right. So do you remember when the Bainbridge Islanders had to move?
MF: You know, my folks had a lot of friends there but I don't remember any of them.
AI: Or hearing about it in the news, newspapers?
MF: I just read in the paper where there's always that same picture, you know, leaving.
AI: Right.
MF: But my friends, my father and mother had quite a few friends there 'cause summertime they would come, they would call us and come and pick berries and take it home and my mother used to take, pick a lot of berries and she would make jams and preserve them. 'Cause she was very famous for doing that. And when we left here for camp she had a lot of canned fruits and mushrooms, matsutake, and we rented our house to a Caucasian and they didn't know what that matsutake was so they didn't take that but they ate all the other things.
AI: Oh, the renter ate all the food that your mother had preserved.
MF: They ate canned -- let's see... what she canned, fruits. She always canned lot of fruits, peaches and apple, pears.
AI: What, so for your, your parents' house, they got a renter to live in the house while --
MF: Yeah, we rented, I think it was about twenty-five dollars a month. And that used to come to our mother's, check used to come every month to Minidoka.
AI: And then what were you and Bill doing to get ready to leave when you found out that you were, that you were going to have to leave also?
MF: Well, we tried to sell it and we sold it for a thousand dollars.
AI: The business?
MF: Uh-huh.
AI: And what about all your household things?
MF: We stored it in my mother's home.
AI: Now, your mother and father, of course, were Issei. And so was their home in --
MF: My father was taken the first night.
AI: Right.
MF: To Mis-, no, first to immigration. And then he was taken to Missoula, Montana. He roomed with Reverend Ichikawa. So they were very good friends. And he's, my father and mother are Buddhist so naturally... [Laughs] It was kind of a bad time.
AI: Yeah. A difficult time.
MF: Yeah.
AI: Can you remember anything else about what you were doing to get ready before you had to leave, other things that you were doing or taking care of or...
MF: Well, we wanted to leave together. My father was taken so it was my mother and three brothers that staying home at that time and so we went to, we closed our house and we went to live with my mom's home for about one week or so. And then we left together. So our identification had the same number. You know, my mother's and Fukui's.
AI: Right.
<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.