<Begin Segment 17>

TI: Okay, so Masa, we're gonna pick it up again. October 1942, and now it's the second time that your family has been asked to, whether or not they want to go, and you said this was kind of voluntary, but really not, because you didn't have much choice.

MK: No.

TI: Because you're barely surviving, your mother with five young children. And so the second time she agrees to go, so tell me about that. What happens next?

MK: Well, one of the things that was promised to us was that, if we go... way back, when was that? May, when they first came to us. One of the reasons that they wanted, we should go was the fact that once we go over there, when we get to camp we'll be together with my dad. This was one of the things that tried to make us go. Of course, that was, we couldn't, we couldn't even consider that trip, because it was too close, but it was a very major deciding factor whether we would go or not. 'Cause by this time my dad was, Dad was in Louisiana. Camp Livingston. So, being that he was in Louisiana, Mom felt that, well, it wouldn't be too far for him to come over so he could join us in Arkansas, knowing that we were going to Arkansas. So then that was what made her think, "Yeah, we will go."

TI: But it wasn't explained to her that in Arkansas, Jerome, Arkansas, he wouldn't be there.

MK: No, he wouldn't be there. He's didn't come, either.

TI: Because the first one they mentioned Crystal City, which was a family camp, internment camp, where, where...

MK: Right. The families were put in internment camp, not relocation camps. So those people eventually came into relocation camps as families, but that's after the fact.

TI: But at this point, so we're October, your mom is thinking that --

MK: We were gonna join together in Jerome. Once we got to Jerome that my dad would join us just like they did in Crystal City. So, so then she consented to go. Then October, November, it was early, just before, just before Thanksgiving, we shipped out of Kauai. Then we came to a immigration center right over here, right outside of state... well, the immigration center right now.

TI: Ala Moana Immigration.

MK: Yeah, and we stayed there 'til December 26th.

TI: So about, a little more than a month.

MK: A month, yeah.

TI: And what was that like, staying in this immigration place?

MK: I think it was kind of relaxing, that we didn't have any of the outside pressures anymore. We were kinda confined, and we were left alone and nobody bothered us. Everybody, every... we were being fed every day and could do what we wanted in that place, even though it was kind of confining. And all the families there were alike, from all the different islands. I think it was pretty nice. [Laughs]

TI: And maybe especially for your mother. She didn't have to worry so much.

MK: Yeah. No more worries, then we didn't have to worry about each other or anything like that. You know, it was relaxing.

TI: So you're there about a month and a half, any memories from...

MK: No, not really. We, the only thing we were wondering was okay, we're gonna ship, when we're gonna ship? How come we aren't shipping out yet? And that was when we found out that the people from Maui had not been shipped over, and as soon as they came over, they said, "Okay, the Lurline is ready to sail with you folks and you're gonna go to the mainland." But also, I guess, the Lurline was a troop ship, so shipping back and forth, they had to make space for us. There was only about, I can't remember the number. Three hundred or... something to that number. I know it was a three. Now, three hundred or three thousand, I'm not sure. I'm not, I'm quite sure it wasn't three thousand.

TI: It was probably three hundred.

MK: Three hundred.

TI: Closer to three hundred.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.