<Begin Segment 20>

MN: Now when did you leave Topaz?

KI: I left in July, July of '45. I think towards the end of the month.

MN: Who did you leave with?

KI: Myself.

MN: What about your father and mother?

KI: My father had already come out ahead a couple... maybe a month or two before I did and trying to find a place, house for the family. And he was unable to find something so I think he and Mom decided I should come out and start school in September. So Mom stayed behind with my three siblings and I came out by myself.

MN: So when you walked out those gates by yourself, what were you feeling?

KI: Nothing, I didn't feel anything except that I was going back home or I'm going to Berkeley going to... well, I guess one of the things is I was going to see my dad and I was going to go see my girlfriend who was already out there and that I was going to go to school. Just very superficial things I think. I didn't worry about where I was... I didn't think about where am I going to stay or things like that. I guess I just took for granted it was going to be provided and it was. I mean, I didn't have to worry about it. But I remember walking over to the bus and seeing my mother and sister and brothers on that side of the fence came to see me off, and getting onto the hot bus.

MN: Did you ever think you would return to Topaz?

KI: You mean between the time that I left and seeing my mother there?

MN: That the moment that you walked out of the gate, did you think you would return again someday?

KI: No.

MN: Now on your train ride back to Berkeley, were there soldiers on the train and anybody harass you?

KI: No, 'cause at that point I think I mean there was I don't think... I don't think there were any soldiers in the... since there was, I don't even know how people of us left at the same time on that bus, if it was four or five or if it was just me and if there's only that many people I don't think they're going to hire or have a soldier come in and watch us all the way back to California. So I have a feeling there wasn't any soldiers or we weren't under scrutiny, and I don't know what I did with my twenty-five dollars that I was supposed to have gotten. I don't even remember getting it but I must have gotten it 'cause they said everybody who left got... especially if I'm traveling myself I have to have some money but I certainly don't remember. I don't remember very much about the ride, it was much more comfortable I think because of less crowding and you didn't have all this babies crying and people scrambling all over each other. So it was much more comfortable I remember.

MN: How did you feel as you got closer the Bay Area?

KI: I could feel it. I felt more... I could feel that we were coming to Bay Area. It was a real odd feeling because I think it was... I don't know if it was Richmond or Vallejo or someplace, all of a sudden I just felt like hey, coming near home again, and it was just... I don't know if it was because of the time of year, we had left all this heat and stuff and Bay Area usually has a little different air to it and I think that's probably what I felt, that I remember that feeling of being in Berkeley before.

MN: Who met you at the train station?

KI: My father and my girlfriend. I saw my father first, yeah.

MN: How did you feel about seeing him again and your friend?

KI: Oh, it was really nice. I mean, it was really great that there was something familiar, something familiar, that I didn't feel stuck out by myself.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.