<Begin Segment 7>

SY: So kind of describe then what happened to you when they made this decision.

MK: When my uncle heard about all the problems, he said he'll send fare for two of us to come out there to work in his store and so I remember that day clearly when Sachi drove us to Union Station, Aki and I. We didn't know what we were going. I'm quite sure I was excited because I liked adventure and probably didn't know any better.

SY: Had you heard of New York? Did you have any idea?

MK: I was excited about seeing the Empire State building and all those things, Coney Island. And so we... Aki and I went and I remember that long, long train ride just seeing nothing but corn and wheat fields, acres and acres of that but I don't know how we ever got there because you know we were really country hicks, how we got out of Covina let alone going to Los Angeles and then going all the way to New York City.

SY: And you stayed on this train for must have been days?

MK: Right. It took five days.

SY: And never got off, you just stayed.

MK: Yeah.

SY: 'Cause you didn't meet any kind of problems along the way?

MK: I guess we just stood together. I remember going to the dining car, that I remember doing. And I remember pulling into Grand Central Station, oh, that was quite a feeling there. That huge, huge monstrous station and my uncle met us there.

SY: This must have been kind of scary, you were rather young?

MK: I can't imagine letting any of my kids doing what I did at that age. I mean, I would drive them everywhere but here we were just strictly on our own.

SY: Right.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.