<Begin Segment 9>

SY: And can you sort of talk a little bit -- it was just you and your sister living alone in this one bedroom apartment. Like what did you do? What was your typical day like?

MK: Well, we'd go to work during the day... I don't know if you ever heard of the Horn & Hardart but that was my favorite place, restaurant where they had a lot of cubbyholes where you put a nickel or quarter in and you get your food out that way, I was fascinated by that. But they had good food there and I don't know if they still have that or not but that was a very popular place. But then we started going to movies and then eventually I... well I guess Aki went too... we went to the Japanese 108th Street Methodist Church. And we were the first ones to go there from the West Coast.

SY: First Japanese Americans and it was a Japanese American church?

MK: Yeah, it was a Japanese American church. And they're all New York born and bred Niseis there, didn't feel welcome at all at the beginning. They just did not like the evacuees, but little by little we got to know them.

SY: Do you think it was because you were strangers or just because you were from...

MK: They were wearing gloves and hats and looking so spiffy and we were from the West Coast. But then Reverend Akamatsu who was from I think formerly from Seattle, Washington, he was the pastor there and he and his wife did welcome us. So eventually we just stayed there and then as more evacuees started to come we got very comfortable there -- in fact we started what we call the camp dance down in the basement of the church. And it became the social hub after a few months so I met a lot of West Coast people at that time because they all heard about that church and it was a good thing there.

SY: And this was something you sort of did on your own, you and your sister you just decided there was a church nearby or did your uncle...

MK: Well, my uncle sent us first to the 57th Street Church but it was so uncomfortable for me. They were... I don't know, they didn't welcome us at all. But then I heard about the Methodist church and Reverend Akamatsu so that's when I switched over and it was much better.

SY: Oh, I see.

MK: There's still some, there were a few people from Seattle, well, not Seattle, I remember Mas Toyotome who was head of JEMS, he was going to seminary there and he became a good friend of mine.

SY: So you socialized mainly then with other Japanese Americans in New York?

MK: Yes, in New York.

SY: It was pretty, kind of a closed, as far as your social life, it was a very closed Japanese American community?

MK: Yes, it was. Well, it got better as the West Coast people started coming in but at the beginning we did start to meet New York people. When they got to know us they found out that we were human too so it was better. [Laughs]

SY: Like was it a small group of people? It obviously grew over the years but when you first got there, how many families were there?

MK: You mean at the church, the New York people?

SY: Right.

MK: I imagine there must have been about twenty, twenty-five, it was a small group still 'cause there weren't that many Japanese in New York even at that time.

SY: So it was also a gathering place too for young boys going off to serve in overseas?

MK: Right, because New Jersey was one of the training stations where the 442 left from so we did meet a lot of the guys from Hawaii. In fact, they heard about my uncle's store too so a lot of them came on their furlough so we met, in fact my sister met Ray Nosaka who they became... they fell in love and they got married in New York.

SY: That's nice. Now tell me how was your sister handling all of this? You were always very positive but was your sister as...

MK: She was on the quiet side and not that adventuresome but she was always there for me when I needed her.

SY: So did you two hang out always together?

MK: Well, whenever we went to shows and things like that we'd do things together but toward the end after she met Ray and started... she didn't want to go out, all she did want is to write letters and wait for him to come back.

SY: But by then you had developed a lot of friends?

MK: Yeah.

SY: And these guys who would kind of just... can you describe sort of the scene? What kinds of things did the young people do?

MK: I guess there were the socials but I don't really remember. I didn't get that involved with --

SY: 'Cause it must have been exciting for all the young people then, right? Especially these young men who were going off to --

MK: They appreciated that they had a place that they could socialize and meet other young people.

SY: Do you remember talking to them about camp?

MK: Yeah, well, see, I never went to camp.

SY: But they had obviously, many of these kids who were going.

MK: The first group were all from Hawaii so they had just come over. I guess they were the 100th Battalion that came over first and then the 442 started coming. I not going to camp, didn't have as much to talk to some of the new people but I learned a lot from them.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.