<Begin Segment 22>

AI: Well, so then, a little bit later, I was going to ask you, it sounded like a very, a really miserable place to be put into that horse stall and David being sick and then eating with the people who had tuberculosis. What did you, what was going through your mind? What did you think about your government at this point that they would, they would do something like this to you?

MF: Yeah. I thought that was really cruel. Being a citizen and to be put in a place like that. You lost everything. You lost your house, and you lost your business, and we only got a thousand dollars for a business that was worth about three or four thousand with all the clothes that we had finished hanging there. Of course, a lot of 'em picked it up but a lot of 'em was there. And then we only got a thousand dollars for that business where we were making a lotta money on that. But, you know, there was a lot of kind people, though. They said, "You bring your precious things and we'll keep it for you," and sure enough they kept it. And when you came back we got everything back. And I appreciated it so much. 'Cause you know I had -- my husband was first-generation. He had some very lovely things, porcelain and sculptures that he loved and we didn't know what to do and the friends came and they said, "We'll keep it for you until you come back." And sure enough they kept it for us.

AI: When you say "friends," are you talking about individual --

MF: Individual friends.

AI: -- people or you're talking about the American Friends Committee?

MF: American Friends, yeah.

AI: Oh, the American Friends Committee.

MF: Yeah, we had about three or four professors. We lived near Montlake so there was a lotta University of Washington professors there that were our customers and they were very, very sympathetic about us going and we had some real nice things 'cause my husband, being Issei, why, he had some -- before I got married to him, we, he collected real nice antique things which couldn't really replace it. And they were kind enough to keep it for us.

AI: Do you remember anything about the things that you were able to take with you to camp? Was there anything that kinda sticks in your mind?

MF: Oh, I don't think we took anything. We weren't allowed to take anything except just to carry things and my husband carried the, he had dismantled the crib so that he would have a bed for David. We were the only ones that carried heavy thing like a crib and dismantled it and he carried it in his hand and took it and put it in a cardboard box. He wasn't used to sleeping in a bed yet. He was so small. I don't think -- nobody ever carried -- I think people carried suitcase or something like that. We carried suitcase but crib was really kinda bulky but Dad said, "Well, we better take this. He won't sleep anywhere else." So we took that.

AI: It must've been hard having such a young one with you.

MF: Yeah, and it was hard because we weren't married too long and we were married in '36 and we were able to buy new furniture from KCW Furniture Store. And we bought a dining room set and then a sofa and refrigerator and when I got married he had a, just a icebox. Yeah. And then he built a Nihon ofuro, bath. It was wooden. We would wash ourself outside and then jump in the wooden thing. He had a tile floor in our bathroom. We had to leave all that. He missed that.

AI: It must've been really hard to leave --

MF: Yeah, it was hard for him I'm sure, more than me.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.