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SY: Now I know there was an incident -- I think you were fairly young -- with one of your sisters and I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about that?

MK: My younger sister, Dorothy, she was about a year old I guess and she was at home when she went out the front door and my dad was backing up the car. She was just there at the wrong time and he ran over her leg and so for many years even today she has suffered from that. But her attitude has always been so great too but the thing that comes to mind with her is that this Caucasian couple, we used to have a stand, a strawberry stand, they used to come every week and buy vegetables from us and they used to see Dorothy there very... they just felt so sorry for her so they took her to Dr. McDowell who was their best friend and he made all the arrangements for her to go to Children's Hospital and have many, many operations over the years. So she just lived with them. I don't know how we could ever repay them for their kindness.

SY: So she actually left your family? Your parents said it's okay for this?

MK: Well, of course they didn't know what to do but then they weren't able to take care of her so they said well, for a short time and it turned out to be many years until the time of evacuation.

SY: Right, so do you remember still seeing her?

MK: I was only a couple years older than her so I don't remember that much but I do remember going over name of the people were Lanphears, going over there and I just envied her because she... they just treated her like a little princess and the best food. Mrs. Lanphear was the best cook and she used to make these angel food cakes. I can remember funny things like that. But it was... we thought she was living the life of Riley but actually she suffered a great deal. I don't know how many operations (she) had. They just took good care of her.

SY: So she had a lot of medical care for this.

MK: And then they made sure that they came (over) at least once a week so that she would keep bonding with our family.

SY: Oh, how nice.

MK: But after a while Dorothy got to the point where she just was so involved with the Lanphears and their twin sons there that were much older that she just felt that she was part of their family.

SY: I see, wow, that's an amazing story.

MK: Even at the time of evacuation (when) she was in rehab, some kind of... she had just had an operation and they said when the rest of the family was ready to go to camp, they said that she didn't have to go. But the day before they were going to leave Pomona Assembly Center, here comes this ambulance, brings her up to the assembly center and just literally dumped her off there.

SY: So they literally picked her up in the hospital and brought her to meet your parents?

MK: Exactly, to this day I think she has blocked so much of this out of her mind -- but my older sister remembers a lot of this. And I think... because she had no real relationship with my folks by then and because she couldn't speak any Japanese. So it was a very, very traumatic time for her I know.

SY: Wow that is just amazing. And the Lanphears, how did they feel about it?

MK: Oh, they tried everything to try to keep her. They went all up the chain of command and promised one thing but it never worked out that way. They were just heartbroken I know.

SY: Wow, that's just amazing.

MK: You just don't find people like that anymore.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.