<Begin Segment 7>

TI: Going back to your, so after the funeral, how long was it before your stepfather left for Japan?

MN: I can't say in years, I don't remember. I imagine my half brother must have been about six or seven. 1937 my sister got married, and he was still here. So my mother passed away in '33.

TI: So about, it sounds like three or four years.

MN: Five, five six years.

TI: Five or six years.

MN: My father, stepfather took his son and went back to Japan.

TI: Okay. So at this point, when he left, because you were living with your stepfather and taking care of Bill... so when your stepfather left, you were about, looks like about (twelve) years old.

MN: Yes, I imagine so.

TI: And that would put your older brother at about twenty-two, twenty three? Yeah, okay. And so it was at that time, when you were about (twelve), and your younger sister was about (eight), that your stepfather went back.

MN: Uh-huh. I'm just guessing at that age, I don't remember.

TI: Yeah, just roughly. But still, okay, so age-wise, your older brother, who's about twenty-two, and your oldest sister, about twenty-one, they really want to keep the family together.

MN: Oh, now that you say twenty-one, I don't believe she was twenty-one. She got married at a very young age. I think she must have been about nineteen (...) when she married, I believe. But we lived on the same street, so she was very close by.

TI: Okay. And so you mentioned how your brother kind of bribed you, said he would send you to music lessons if you stayed. So let's talk about how the family operated now that your stepfather and your younger half-brother is now gone. How did the family operate?

MN: My brother went to work for a nursery at the onset of the time when he had to start taking care of us, and learned about plants and things. And I imagine he was going on the bus, because he didn't have a car at that time. And later on, he started taking -- after they would purchase the car, he was, or rent a car or something, I don't know how he got the car -- he got a book from the library on horticulture, and learned all about gardening and became a gardener. And he supported us by going and doing gardening. And what little money he was able to make, he would leave a dollar bill on the kitchen table when he went to work. My sister, who was just (two) years older than I, would take that dollar bill, go buy things for our lunch for school, and our dinner for the night, and she would cook, and I would help cook, cook rice and things. But that dollar saw us through lunches for school and dinner, every day he would leave a dollar. But in those days, in the 1930s, that sufficed. And it's amazing.

TI: And for a dollar, what could you buy for lunch and dinner?

MN: Bread, bologna, mayonnaise, little bit of meat or something to cook okazu for dinner. And if she was able to buy a chicken pot pie, that was a treat. We ate well, I mean, we survived. But in those days, a dollar would do it.

TI: And were you still living in Venice?

MN: We were living in Venice in the same house that my mother was living in, and that's the house that we left to go to Manzanar.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.