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MN: But before we move out, you found out on the, when they put the notices on the pole that you had to move out. Now, when you found out that all the Japanese Americans on the West Coast had to move out, did you discuss this with your parents on what to do?

TY: Oh yes. I said, well, what are you gonna do with the farm, Dad? What are you gonna do with your horses, Dad? What are you gonna do with your house, Dad? What are you gonna do with the contents in the house, Dad? Dad said, well, we have to do what we got to do. Then, I don't know whether we got a letter or whether, I don't quite recall whether they came to tell us that we can't do this or it came out of the newspaper or whatever, saying that we cannot keep a gun, camera, a dangerous weapon or whatever it was. I don't recall, but we couldn't keep those, so then we had to dispose of 'em somehow, so people come to buy. Then we didn't sell 'em nothing because they won't, they get things for little or nothing, so my dad says dig a hole and bury it in the ground. [Laughs] So we dug a hole and buried the guns and all these precious things and everything in the ground. And it's probably still there, but that's what we had to do. That's why, when we moved out we didn't take, we couldn't take anything besides, only thing we were able to take was our bedding and the food and whatever was necessary.

MN: What was the decision to move out? How did you, how did your family decide to move rather than go into camp?

TY: Well, my mother, my dad had ill health, so then my mother didn't want to go to the camp because she was afraid that he just might die over there, so he didn't want, she didn't want him to die there, I guess. So then she decided that, well, let's go to Dad's friend's place. So then, "I'd rather have," she said, "I'd rather have Dad go someplace else besides the camp." That was a decision that, I guess, the parents made, so that's the reason why we went to Colorado. And then prior to going to Colorado we had to go observe the place because we thought that why should we get out of here, so that was our decision, the Nisei decision. Well then Dad said, "Well, we got to go, we got to go. You got to go too." I said, no, we don't have to go. We're American citizens. But we got to go, so Dad said, "Well, why don't you go visit my friend?" So I don't know whether I told you this or not, but we went to a district attorney in Los Angeles and we got a letter to come back home just in case the curfew and limitation of the time, this and that. We were there for two, three days to observe the place and rented the place.

MN: So when you say Festo, where in Colorado did you and your brother go out to?

TY: Went to see Kersey, Greeley. I don't know whether we went to Denver or not. We went to Littleton and all that, and then so happened my father's friend lived in Kunick, Kuner, town called Kuner. And then he found the place for us in Kersey, so we decided we're gonna work for this German farmer that's gonna supply the house to us, so we worked over there.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.