<Begin Segment 7>

TI: So Kay, I want to go back to the story about dumping the sake into the creek. So when you were awakened in the middle of the night to take these jugs with your mother and father and, I suppose, your brothers and sisters, what were you thinking?

KA: Oh, we knew it was God. [Laughs] Because my parents would never dump anything. You know, they sacrificed even a sack of rice to make it. I don't know how they made it, but...

TI: And so what did you think when you were, when you were dumping this?

KA: We knew it was God.

TI: And so that was okay for you?

KA: Oh, yes. I mean, we had to obey. See, because we've seen my father's faith, even about fertilizing the strawberry, that he didn't need to do that, you know. And we would tremble when God would be speaking to him, because we knew that He knew everything in our hearts. I mean, you know? Truly. If you're confronted by God, and you see yourself, because you have thoughts maybe that is not pleasing to God. But anyway, all our kids, I think my brothers and sisters who were old enough, we used to say, "Oh, the Holy Spirit has come." Because my father would be shaking, too, trembling. And it was really awesome.

TI: And in the same way, when he got the word that the Japanese would be relocated, was this after the bombing of Pearl Harbor?

KA: Yes, oh, yes.

TI: Okay, so that was after that, but before anyone knew they were going to be relocated or moved, he got the message that the Japanese...

KA: Yes, uh-huh. But it was after Pearl Harbor.

TI: And in the same way, was he trembling when he got that, do you remember?

KA: Yes.

TI: And how did he communicate that to you and the others?

KA: Oh, we saw. I mean, he would be praying, kneeling, and we would all kneel, too. And oh, he would start out singing, "Sei rei kitareri," that means, "The Holy Spirit has come," it's a hymn. And we knew that God was in our presence in our shack. But it was truly a spiritual... I don't know. A wonderful, wonderful blessing. That's why my faith in God will never be shaken, I pray. Because in the Last Days, it says even those who think their firm might be shaken, God is going to shake everything there is to be shaken. And look at the world today. It's really shaken everybody. But anyway, this is a real unusual -- in fact, my mother used to be afraid to tell people because they might think she was crazy. So she would just share it with the family. Because people will think, "She must have lost her mind," or my father must have gone fanatic, you know, just gone overboard. But it was truly, everything that God said came true. Not only that, one time -- we had two horses to cultivate. We didn't have the machinery, you know, to cultivate.

SP: On the strawberry farm.

KA: Yes, strawberry farm. Twenty-seven acres, that's a big land. And so one horse died -- no, ran away, or was missing. And my father knelt down again and said -- because we couldn't afford to buy another horse, knowing that we would be evacuated, too. And the Holy Spirit said, "Go to your neighbor's barn." Sure enough, the horse was there. [Laughs] And so they were able to -- you know, they said the horse had wandered into their farm, so they just tied it up. And we happened to know them, too, Roscoe Bierley, and they were Christians. But things like that happened to us. It's truly a miracle.

SP: So I wanted to ask you about a story that I read in your brother's memoir about your lives on the strawberry farm. So at one point, your parents are clearing the land, and they're burning a lot of the brush to clear it. And there was something that happened to you kids.

KA: Poison oak, poison ivy. I mean, when they were burning the bushes, all the kids got rash from the poison oak, the smoke.

SP: From being outdoors and exposed to it.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.