<Begin Segment 8>

SY: And your mother didn't drive with you to the Union Station?

MK: Oh, she and my dad both did.

SY: And they were sad to see you go?

MK: Oh, of course, the look on my mother's face. But I didn't want her to be sad so I guess I probably put on a show like I usually do and so she said that was one of the hardest things 'cause she thought she'd never see us again. And she didn't have that much money to give us to go. But the only consolation was that her brother was at the other end to meet us.

SY: Now had you met her brother?

MK: My uncle was here... I was quite young when he left. He stayed, he lived with the folks I guess for a year or so. Then he decided (on) going to go to New York and make his fortune. So I'm assuming (I was) about four or five when he left, vaguely remember, but no, he was a New Yorker by then.

SY: And so how successful was he? What did he do in New York?

MK: He had an export/import business, nothing really spectacular but I guess made a good living. And so when we went there, oh, I have to tell you he picked us up in his old woody station wagon and said he had an apartment for us so we went and there's this old four story apartment building. We were on the second floor and the first thing we did we walked in there and there's a bathtub sitting right in the kitchen. [Laughs] And it was a one bedroom place but it was close to his store, walking distance to his store.

SY: So he really left the two of you completely on your own.

MK: Right.

SY: He just dropped you off and you had a little bit of money.

MK: My uncle?

SY: Yes.

MK: No, no, well, he had his business so we knew we were going to go over there the next day and start working for him.

SY: But set up this living situation where you were completely, you and your sister were completely on your own.

MK: Yeah, we were on our own.

SY: So do you remember how you felt that first night with the bathtub?

MK: I just thought it was the funniest thing I've ever seen but then I figured that's New York. But there were some really nice neighbors there, they were all Italian folk and they welcomed us and so I felt really good about that. And then the next day they came and asked us if we would like to be air raid wardens... didn't know what that was but it meant that we get to carry a flashlight and patrol the streets at night I guess in case anything happened on the East Coast. They had no idea what we were going through as far as Japan being at war with us too. I don't think they even knew there was a war going on the Pacific side.

SY: And was this common for everybody to be involved as air raid wardens? Or were you chosen?

MK: Young people, they were all young people.

SY: All young people, oh I see.

MK: Good looking Italian boys, I said yes right away. [Laughs] But we made good friends there.

SY: That's great, you made good friends among the Italians in your building and then you went to work every day at your uncle's?

MK: Right and that was a couple of blocks away on 28th Street and he had an import/export business but he also made a lot of shadow boxes they call them pictures where you put the straw flowers into... now I think about it, it must be very sacrilegious... pictures of Jesus carrying straw flowers and I guess Mother Mary, wherever we thought flowers should go we put flowers. [Laughs]

SY: And he sold them?

MK: They sold well because I guess there were a lot of Italians in that area, all Catholics. They thought they were beautiful.

SY: So he sold mostly to non-Japanese clientele?

MK: Oh, yeah, they were all non-Japanese.

SY: Amazing. And the area that you lived, was it kind of... can you describe the neighborhood?

MK: I would consider it lower eastside, what you would think of lower eastside.

SY: And so was it scary?

MK: No, not in those days. I don't ever remember being scared.

SY: You would be okay going out at night?

MK: I don't know that we would go out that much at night but then the only thing I was scared of when it really started snowing hard and the streets got so slippery just make sure that we didn't fall. Other than that that was just for about a year, year and a half that we did that.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.