<Begin Segment 14>

AI: Well, now how long were you in Puyallup?

LK: I think we were there about three months. And by then, the camp in Idaho was ready for us.

AI: So during this three-month period, what was happening? You had your high school, your senior year was interrupted.

LK: Uh-huh.

AI: You had to go down to Puyallup before you were able to graduate.

LK: Uh-huh.

AI: Were you, was there any school or classes or... what happened for you?

LK: No, there was no school at all. And because we had -- we left Seattle first week of May, so I would have been graduating in another month or so. So those of us who were in the senior class, they had a little ceremony and the principal came out to Puyallup and we sat in the grandstands and they had a little ceremony and handed us our diplomas.

AI: How did you feel about that?

LK: Well, I know my mother felt really bad that I missed the senior prom and so forth, 'cause it was a big thing for my sister. Get to wear a new dress and things like that. But I was no different from the rest of them, so... and they had a little dance for us afterwards.

AI: And here you are, you get your diploma, but you're stuck in this camp. When, before you had been evacuated, what was, what were your plans, what were you thinking of doing after your high school graduation?

LK: Well my mother had great plans for me. She wanted me to go to college and she wanted me to be a, teach English and possibly go to Japan and teach English. That was always my mother who was the aggressor in our family and had plans for all of us kids, and I think that was her idea.

AI: So really that was all interrupted and here you were. And it sounds like maybe you were just... fortunately, at least you got your diploma.

LK: Well, that's the way I felt. That even though I rushed through school, at least I did graduate.

AI: And then what else happened in Puyallup? It sounds like there were so many of you young folks right about that age. Did you have any kind of activities at all going on?

LK: Oh yes, there was a lot of socializing and... I think that's probably the first time I've ever had boyfriends, you know, so that's where I first met my husband, future husband.

AI: How did you, how did you meet him?

LK: Oh, I think some other fellow wanted to meet me and so he said, "Oh, I'll get a date with her and then I'll turn her over to you." [Laughs] That's a funny story that we have between our family. But we had dances just because us teenagers were at that age and I think some of the people brought records or brought a record player. So whatever resources we had, we used them and, and they'd have these barns where they kept animals and things that used to have their exhibits for the Puyallup Fair and that's where we used to have the dances. But we just made do with whatever we had.

AI: Right.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.