<Begin Segment 13>

TI: So when they picked up your father, were you aware of others being picked up also?

MK: No, I didn't know, until we went to the, after we found out where he was and then we went to the county jail to visit him. That's when we found out that others had been gathered also. And there were, I think there were four cells, three or four cells, but there were about four people to each cell, so I think there were maybe twelve, under twenty people.

TI: Twelve or sixteen, yeah. So describe how the jail was set up to hold these people. So they had three or four cells...

MK: Cots, yeah, they had doubled up the cots making double bunks, stuff like that. And they weren't, I'm sure they weren't mistreated or anything. They seemed to be very... not happy, but they were comfortable living there.

TI: And they were allowed visitors, obviously. You went --

MK: Once a, once a week, yeah. Every, every weekend, I think it was Sundays, we would go to visit them, so Mom would make something and somebody would drive us to the... and I can't even remember how we even got there, how we got to the...

TI: So describe to me as much as you can, so, like on the weekend when you go visit him, so were you able to, to right up to him, or was it behind the fence, or... can you explain how --

MK: No, this was... in Wailua it was very lenient. We get to the, we'd get to the guard gate and Mom would make lunch and juubako and all that, so that we could all eat together, we picnic together in the lawn. So we would go over there, and we, as soon as we entered, Dad would see us. He'd come out of... their cells were never locked. The doors all open, gates were all open, and they used to walk in and out. I remember Dad saying that they were bored because they don't have anything to do, which is the biggest thing with them. And so he would come out and we'd go out to the corner of the -- of course, it's a county jail, so it's barbed wired, but nobody bothered us, and the guards are all local who knew each other, so they never bothered anybody. We were at liberty to associate just like family. We had a family picnic every Sunday. I think we had three weeks or four weeks, something to that effect. I can't remember really how long, how many outings we had. And we'd stay there about, maybe 'til two or three o'clock, and then we'd leave. Time... they had certain hours that we could visit them. We'd visit to that full extent and then we'd leave.

TI: And while you were visiting were other families visiting?

MK: Yes. All the families there were visiting. There's couple, couple men who had no families, so they were, they... we always invited them to join us. I would say maybe about twelve, fair number that was in the jailhouse.

TI: And do you remember any of your feelings when, when you went to go visit? I mean, did it feel like fun, or was it more quiet, or... do you have just a sense of what it was like?

MK: I really wasn't old enough to even realize what was happening, you know? Until then it was just, it was an outing. It was a picnic day with Dad. That's about how I felt, I guess. We were seeing Dad again for this week again, until, until he was gone. Once he was gone, then we, all of a sudden, it came to me, hey, this is something serious. Until then I didn't really know.

TI: And so the last time you visited he knew he was leaving, so he explained that he was, he was...

MK: Yeah, he was, they were gonna get shipped out. He didn't know where. We asked whether he'd go mainland or where, he said, "They don't tell me." They just, prepare your family, said to let them know that they were gonna get shipped out.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.