<Begin Segment 10>

MA: When you were in Fort Lupton, right around the time that Pearl Harbor happened, were you in communication with your grandparents and your brother? Did you know what was going on on the coast?

NM: I guess so, but then I don't remember. All I remember is that, them coming to Colorado, to my aunt's farm. They all came to my aunt's farm.

MA: Oh, your grandparents and your brother?

NM: Uh-huh. He came with, yeah, my cousins.

MA: And so they were actually able to come before people were taken away to camps, right? During that period before?

NM: No, it was during the period.

MA: Right, okay.

NM: And there was a deadline. So they had to come by, I think it was in the winter, that I know of, March maybe. And they all drove out here. And I remember at, I guess the border, you have to check in at the state line or border. And I remember my brother getting out of the pick-up, they all, my cousin and he was in the back of a pick-up truck. And, well, before that, they were going through Arizona and they were refused gas, and they were being harassed. So they decided to go further up north and take the northern route which is more dangerous. And, I guess at the border, at the inspection station, I guess, my uncle got out and had to go, and my aunt was in the front seat, of course, with the little one, and they told my brother, I mean, she told my brother, "Well, go see what Uncle Goto's doing." And he got out and he hit his head on a truck or something, fell along and slipped on the ice maybe. And he blacked out and they left him behind. [Laughs]

MA: So how did he end up getting back to --

NM: Well, the National Guard saw, I guess they knew what happened, I don't know. So they chased the car, the truck down to Georgetown or some small town. [Laughs]

MA: So then your, it sounds like then your whole family kind of came out.

NM: Separately, uh-huh. And my uncle that was in the service, well, they were all in the service, but they drove the northern route because of what happened to the Gotos. And my uncle was the only one driving, because my other uncle was an Issei and he, they weren't able to get a license, driver's license. So, my other uncle drove and he got so tired, he pulled to the side of the road, take a little nap like 3 o'clock in the morning. And when the sun came out, they were right on the edge of the side of the mountain, steep mountain. And my uncle on the passenger side said, "Boy, if I had gone out to go to the bathroom," he wouldn't be here.

MA: Wow.

NM: That's how close they were to the edge.

MA: Sounds like a kind of dangerous journey to cross to Colorado.

NM: Oh, yeah. That's why my cousin tells me, you know, "The people that went into camp, they were kind of protected by the National Guard, or whoever, but they had to come on their own." And she said she was really scared. She's the oldest of all my cousins, and she says it was a scary time for her and all the families that came out here.

MA: That's an interesting perspective, I think. Her perspective was that they had no protection whatsoever. They had nothing.

NM: That's right, they were on their own.

MA: They're on their own.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.