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TI: Okay, so I'm going to now go back to the war, after December 7th. I mean, when we ended up, it sounded like your father wasn't really that healthy during this time period. Can you describe what kind of health issues or problems he had?

FK: There was a lot I wasn't aware of, just seeing that Daddy's not feeling well, and we have to be quiet or whatever. And then he was, he was ill enough to be away from work, but three doctors took over the practice. So I don't know how things fell into place, but life went on. And that was, I guess, right before the war. When the war did start, let's see. There was another doctor who stayed with us, Tadashi Fujimoto, he stayed with us a long time, and there was a George Wada, let's see, I'm sure I'm leaving somebody out.

TI: That's okay. So with your father ill and the war starts, so let's talk about him. So what happened to him during this time period?

FK: Oh, he was at, I'm not positive, but I think he was hospitalized at Good Samaritan Hospital in L.A. And he was there some time, I don't know. I don't know how the pieces fell into place, but...

TI: But he was, I guess, ill enough, so he had to be hospitalized.

FK: Right.

TI: And so when this is happening, so your father was in the hospital, what was the rest of the family doing? Because at some point, the government, people started find out that they're going to be leaving the West Coast.

MN: Oh, that's right.

TI: And I'm curious what your family had to do to get ready.

FK: Well, somehow or another, I guess he spoke to my mother and told her that -- at that time, you could voluntarily leave -- and so he told her to get hold of Beacon's Van and Storage and have them pick up our furniture and move to Fresno, because that was the "free zone." So April of '42, that's what we did. We checked out of school and loaded up two cars and moved to Fresno. And we didn't know where we were going. But some people from Gardena had moved to Fresno, so we followed.

TI: And where did, in Fresno, where did you stay?

FK: How we found this place, I don't know. But on the next block from where we lived in Gardena, there was an Eto family. They had a seed and farm supply house, just, less than a half block away. And they had moved there and they had adult kids. In fact, their second son was in med. school at that time, his name was Jackson Eto. And he, the Eto family was, they were my parents' friends, and so they told us to come over there, and they found us a house that was vacant. So we moved into this really shack, this old house full of holes and broken floors and all. Anyhow, we moved in there and at that time, Fresno had a lot of Armenians. There was a big Armenian colony.

TI: Right.

FK: And people were afraid of them because they looked kind of "foreign." [Laughs] But, so we moved over there and my sister Sachi and I enrolled in Fresno at Roosevelt High School. And we went there from April 'til the middle of June, and they said we could no longer go to high school. It was outside of the zone. All these zones suddenly popped up. So that was the, almost the end of Fresno. In the meanwhile, my father had, I don't know if he had undergone surgery at Good Samaritan or what, but we had left him in L.A. I don't know what happened. I need help here, I don't know what happened.

TI: So I think they, did they move him to a sanitarium?

FK: Oh, he still had connections with Maryknoll, and Maryknoll sisters had a sanitorium in Monrovia, and he stayed in a cottage there. In those days, he was in good... what is it, connections with the Maryknoll fathers because of Dr. Kuroiwa. Anytime you kifu, you know... you know kifu?

TI: No.

FK: Oh, come on, you're part of the group. Kifu is a donation.

TI: Oh, okay, right.

FK: Japanese donation. Because from years past, thanks to Dr. Kuroiwa, my parents had been stuck with Maryknoll sanitorium, or Maryknoll church donations. Any time Kuroiwa said, "Give me a check," my father would write him a check.

TI: Oh, so he had done this for years before.

FK: Oh, yeah.

TI: And that helped pave the way for him to stay.

FK: Right.

TI: Okay.

FK: Yeah, 'cause our future was unknown at that time. 'Cause while we were in Fresno, we were told that we had to sign up for camp. So he went to Pinedale, it's just a railroad siding outside of Fresno for our shots, and got ready to go to camp. We didn't know where camp was, but it was in Poston.

TI: Okay, so let me recap this, so a lot of information here. Your father was ill, had surgery, then went to Monrovia, which was controlled by the Maryknoll priests. You went from Gardena to Fresno out of the, I guess, the first exclusion zone, and then eventually they decided that Fresno area, central California, would also be part of the exclusion zone.

FK: Right.

TI: So now you're in Pinedale. Now, Monrovia, I don't know my geography around here. That would still be in the exclusion zone, right? Monrovia, that's in California.

FK: It's just outside of where Santa Anita park is.

TI: Okay. And so for him to stay there, do you know if the Maryknoll priests had to pull strings to keep him in the exclusion zone, or were there other Japanese also there?

FK: Oh, there was a large group of Japanese there.

TI: Okay, so they allowed them to stay there.

FK: In fact, I think Mrs. Aratani was there.

TI: Because in Washington, they moved people east of the mountains, so it was kind of different. My father-in-law stayed at a sanitorium in Spokane, on the other side. So I was curious what they did. Okay, so now you're at Pinedale. So tell me what Pinedale was like.

FK: It was just a railroad siding, we went there for our shots, that was it. And we came home, or came back to where we were, and waited for orders to catch a train.

TI: And then where did the train bring you?

FK: Parker, Arizona.

TI: Okay, so that's the...

FK: Poston.

TI: ...Poston. So Pinedale, so Pinedale wasn't the assembly center, then, this was just the, to get your shots.

FK: Railroad siding.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.