<Begin Segment 22>

MN: And I think it was around this time that the war was over?

YK: Yeah, the war ended when we heard that Hiroshima and Nagaski were bombed and Japan had surrendered. And my mother just kept repeating, "Hidoi bakudan," meaning, "very horrendous atomic bomb was dropped."

MN: What was your reaction to hearing that the war was over?

YK: Well, we kind of knew Japan was losing, and so we knew that sooner or later it would be over, so we were kind of shocked to hear that atomic bombs were dropped there. Then, too, we didn't know what happened to my father and brothers, and so it was said, well, definitely they were preparing, after that they prepared a ship to ship people back to Japan. And they said all those in these Department of Justice detention centers would be put on a ship and sent back. And so my mother was in a quandary. If my father and two brothers go back to Japan, what are we gonna do? And so she wrote to my two brothers in the army, and they came to the camp and said, "Hey, you can't go back to Japan. Japan's been destroyed, what are you going to do? Take your children there and they're gonna all go hungry." So he says, "Yeah, we shouldn't go." In the meantime, the Department of Justice said, well, no, they're not going to send everybody from detention centers, those who want to remain can. So at the last minute, they gave an option, and my oldest brother Tadao, he was definitely going back. But he was in Crystal City, Texas, but my father and my brother Skip was in Bismarck, North Dakota. My brother Skip asked my father, "Are we still going? We have a chance to stay," and he said, "No, we're going." So they went back. In fact, my oldest brother said he was surprised, because my mother had written, "Don't go, stay," so he thought was the only one going. And he was surprised to see my father and my brother on the ship, that they were going.

Then the camps were starting to close up, so we were preparing to leave camp. We were among the last to leave, the camp was starting to become deserted. We didn't leave 'til the middle of January, 1996.

MN: 1946.

YK: I mean, 1946. And my sister who had renounced, they said, "Well, we need to keep her," so only my mother and us three minors left the camp. So we went to Klamath Falls, Oregon, and got on the train. For the first time, the train window (...) blinds were up, so we could look out. And so as we left, I could see the town and the countryside, and it felt like we had come back to America after being in camp for almost four years. But, anyway, we came back to Santa Ana.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.