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MN: Now, a lot of the Boyle Heights people, they were sent to Poston or Gila River, but your family ended up at Manzanar. How was this arranged?

AM: Well, when the Little Tokyo people were being rounded up, my father signed up with that group in Little Tokyo, so that's how we ended up in Manzanar. So the block that we lived in, which was Block 20, had a lot of the people from Little Tokyo living in Block 20.

MN: So that wasn't a problem?

AM: No.

MN: If you wanted to go with the downtown group you could just register with them?

AM: Yeah, so my, because my father had the business there in Little Tokyo, it was no problem there.

MN: Back in 1942 when the government put out a call for volunteers to help build Manzanar, your female cousin went by herself.

AM: Yeah.

MN: Can you tell me a little bit about this cousin of yours and was your family in communication with her once she went to Manzanar?

AM: Yeah, so you know what happened was she went back to Japan when we were coming back to Los Angeles because, she was going back because her father decided to go back to Japan because his wife's daughter, who was my mother, was coming back here and then they were very concerned about the widow left behind, so they decided to sell the business, so they went back. So we went, we crossed each other in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. And so my cousin went back on that ship and then after a few years she wanted to come back here, so she did. And so she continued her school after she got back here and when the war broke out and when they started talkin' about Manzanar, my cousin volunteered to go to Manzanar with the first group, so they had to go on their own car, so she went up there and start to work there to set up the, well, I don't know what capacity she was there for, but anyway, she was one of the original founders of the people that started the camp. And so when it was time for my family to go into relocation camp, my father signed up to go with the Little Tokyo people because they were going to Manzanar. So that's how we got there, and so my cousin was there already, ready for us.

MN: Now, she wrote letters to your mother and in that letter what did she suggest that your family bring?

AM: Oh yeah, she was telling my mother what kind of clothing to bring, and so naturally a good windbreaker and things like that, warm clothes to keep warm, and then such thing as slippers and things like that to walk around. She gave my mother a lot of things that she would need, so that was a big help, I'm sure.

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