<Begin Segment 12>

AI: Do you recall the day of evacuation, the day that you left?

LK: Yes.

AI: What was that day like?

LK: It was very, very emotional for my parents, you know, especially. And they packed up as much as they could. I mean, there's... well, my sister wasn't there so there was seven of us, so we carried as much as we could. And we took a taxicab to Fourteenth and Jefferson. That was our allocated pick-up point. And my mother brought some, I remember she brought luncheon meat, you know, in the can -- like Spam cans. Well, we used to have the big, great big long ones. And she brought that and she brought some bread and things like that, thinking that, you know, we might not get enough to eat. And so I remember she, she made us sandwiches when we were in the camp, inside.

AI: Do you remember what you brought that day with, the things you brought with you?

LK: I just brought as much clothes and, and mementos that I had, what few I had. And I, like I say, I left my violin behind because I didn't like having to play it. [Laughs] I told my mother it was absolutely essential things that we had to take, so that was not -- it was exempt. [Laughs]

AI: Well, I imagine when you got to your, your allocated spot you must have seen a lot of folks you knew. You know, some of your friends.

LK: Yes, I did. And it was total chaos, I think, you know, here hundreds of people converging, and then we, they had to assign us our housing and...

AI: So let's see, you took a bus down to...

LK: Yes, to Puyallup. And then I, one of the things I remember is they gave us each a bag and we had to go to the pile of straw that we're supposed to fill. That was our mattress.

AI: Oh.

LK: So they had cots in, in the barracks. I guess you took as many cots as you needed and then we had to fill the bag for our mattress with straw.

AI: And so, were, was your family all kept together? Did you all go to the same place there at Puyallup?

LK: Yes, we did. And we were all in one room. Luckily we were in barracks, right inside the grounds of the racetrack.

AI: Why do you say luckily?

LK: Because so many of them had to be under the grandstand where the horse stalls were and all. Some of them really was, it was very bad conditions. Smelly and, and dank and so, at least we were outside and they set up a whole bunch of barracks on the ground where they have the performances at the Puyallup Fair. On the back, out there they had the grandstand seats and then we were in the center of the grandstand, I mean, the grounds. And each one was, you know, certain size regardless of how many people were in your family. So we had all these cots all in one room and then the walls were just like, you know, like seven, eight feet. Maybe not even that high. Because you could hear the next door people. All, or all the way down the barrack. I think there may be eight units per barrack. And you could hear everybody, arguments and this and that.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.