<Begin Segment 9>

AI: Well, in addition to registering your cameras and so forth, at some point you had to register as a family and get a family number?

AO: Yes.

AI: Is that right? Do you remember anything about doing that?

AO: Yes, I do, definitely. At our church we would -- I would volunteer to type. And each application of family, I would type their name and every item that was necessary to type in. And each application there was a number. Our family number was 3663. And that stayed with us all the way until we, we entered Japan.

AI: So, since you were active with your church, you were actually very involved in this family registration process.

AO: Yes, and we did fill out all the applications for every family in the community.

AI: What church was this?

AO: The church was named Mikuni Christian Church. It's a independent church.

AI: And were you active in other ways with the church before, before the war started?

AO: I would go to the service every Sunday, but there was a very nice elderly lady who volunteered to come to the church and she would have a Bible study at her home. Her name was Ms. Baker, Marie Baker. I do remember her name distinctly. And she was really good in teaching the Bible, I can remember. And then we had one little girl named Mariko and she couldn't say "Mariko," she said "Mary-ko." And this girl was a ticklish girl. She would giggle. And once she started giggling she couldn't stop. And I could still remember that. And I remember, at the last dinner, we had it at her home, and she prepared mutton. And when, this is first time I ever eaten mutton, and I looked down at the meat, lotta fat on it. And so I cut the fat away and I tried to eat the lean meat. And I took one bite... there's something about the odor of the mutton and I just couldn't eat it. But she was good enough to have the gathering and it's more like a family. And she was, she just wanted us to have the last meal before we departed. It was something to remember.

AI: Well, in fact, about when was it that you... well, when you were doing the registration, at that time that you were actually helping the families register, did you already know at that point that you were going to be forced to leave your homes?

AO: Oh, yes. That's the purpose, registration, is that it was preparing to keep track of all the families. And then after we all registered, then we got the orders to go to the point of assembly in Burbank.

AI: And before you went there, what did you and your family do to prepare?

AO: We were given orders to "carry only your belongings" and we were permitted to have one foot locker and one duffle bag, and that was all you could carry. So anything, your furniture or anything that you could not put in the duffle bag or foot locker had to stay behind. But we were fortunate enough to gather up all our furniture and we had Caucasian friends in Whittier and we took -- I had a trailer, so I pulled a trailer with all our household goods in it and took it to Whittier and stored 'em in the barn or garage which was available. And they were stored there. But when we, when I returned to United States, I couldn't find them. I couldn't locate 'em. And it didn't matter, but some our photograph albums were transferred to one fellow from this Congregational Church and I was able to retrieve the photo albums and I still have some of the pictures that were prewar pictures.

AI: Well, now what about the house in Glendale? Did your family own the house or renting it?

AO: We rent the house in Glendale, but the house in Whittier we did, were able to sell it, and minus the mortgage on it, I think my parents received about eleven, twelve hundred dollars. And at that time that was quite a bit of money.

AI: And why did they decide to sell? Were -- they must've been discussing what they thought was going to happen and --

AO: Yes. Well, we were already in Manzanar at the time.

AI: Oh, I see.

AO: And so, through our Caucasian friend, was a realtor. They took care of everything, even, even the car and trailer, they took it and kept it themselves. And then in time they felt that they should pay for it so we received money.

AI: But actually, before you left, at that time you had not yet sold the Whittier house?

AO: No.

AI: But you basically packed things up and left from the Glendale house.

AO: Yes. See, we had already moved to Glendale, evacuated there. The house was rented to a tailor, I remember. And I can't remember his name, but a man, I think he was Hungarian. And the name started with a "W" but I can't remember the name now. And they were good. They paid us the rent.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.