<Begin Segment 7>

SY: So having gone from living in a hotel, right, you were living in a hotel to going to live in this brand new barracks was that easy for you?

FK: You know, as a child there's no hardship for a child. You could find a little cubbyhole and maybe put something in soft where you could lay and go to sleep. But as a parent it had to be devastating to have your children be placed into something like this with no explanation except that your country created this problem, now you're part of the problem.

SY: And you were there with your sisters?

FK: Two sisters so we were in a barrack. There was no potbelly stove in the Santa Anita I don't think just five cots and that was about it.

SY: The weather wasn't as bad there. So then do you remember... you went to school in Santa Anita?

FK: No for whatever reason I was in the second grade before I went in and we were there only for six or seven months. We played outside every day. We roamed the whole... I know every nook and cranny in Santa Anita and we roamed around and we had a great time. Again the adults and the parents, it must have been devastating. If I look back and if I had thinking about having my three boys and myself going into camp, gosh it would have torn me apart.

SY: But at the time it wasn't as bad.

FK: Children are... it's just wonderful to be children.

SY: Yeah, innocent. And then when you finally ended up... I bet there was some not so certainty about what... where you were going to go after that?

FK: You know again for myself nothing was uncertain, I mean, it didn't even occur to me what's going to happen tomorrow. I get up in the morning and then go to the mess hall, we had a tag, everybody has a tag, red, orange, yellow, green whatever and that's where you report to have your... I still recall to this day the clamor and the clanging of spoons and knives and forks and the stainless steel tray. The clanging of that and so when I go to a large restaurant and I hear that I close my eyes and it brings back memories of the camp days. It's funny things like that that kind of jolt you and for a split second you think back, gosh I heard this sound before. And to me it's not a terrible sound, it's something that reminded me of my childhood.

SY: So the food didn't bother you?

FK: Food, you know I don't recall have to eat so an adult would have problems, again children you could adjust to almost anything. If you're hungry you eat and if you're not you don't. The only thing I do remember is on Sundays there was a special day for all the children because they served ice cream. And it was sliced ice cream with a wax paper in between each so it doesn't stick, and somehow I managed to go to about three mess halls with a different... I don't know how I got the different tags but I ended up going to about three and then eating... Sunday was my day.

SY: You still like ice cream?

FK: I still like ice cream.

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