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MN: So when did your family actually leave Granada?

Mo N: Well, people started leaving just before the war ended, when I guess the Supreme Court said that it was unconstitutional to hold us. Some people started leaving. I think some people starting coming back around May, April, May, pretty early. But we didn't leave until after, so August, September... maybe September, October.

MN: So how did it feel for you when you stepped out of camp as a free person?

Mo N: I was a kid. We got out of the truck and we already knew that we were gonna go, go back. We didn't know what that meant, didn't have nothing when we left. So we were just going back to California, just going back to L.A. Yeah, so we got on the train, went back, this time we got to see the scenery. And then stopped at Salt Lake again on the way back, too. We stopped at a couple, two places as I recall. That was out in the middle of some small town. And then we went up to Salt Lake again, got out to run around and we walked out there. In those days, we used to collect book matches, paper book matches... I think it was paper book matches. We used to collect something, we could run out there and collect on the ground out there, people would throw away. Like the milk bottle tops, people used to throw those away. We used to collect those 'cause we used to play games with them. But going back, remember going through the Grand Canyon and coming home... I don't remember coming into Grand Central, though, so maybe I was asleep or what. But then we ended up at Centenary, this church, again. That was a hostel where people could stay. So we stayed there. I don't know how long we stayed there. Long enough for us to be, come to the attention of the truant officer wanting to know what the hell all these "Jap" kids were out there hanging out when they should be in school. So the complaint came down, "You guys need to get into school," and stuff like that. But we moved out to San Dimas to stay with friends out there, who were caretakers of this orange ranch.

MN: Now when you were in Centenary, your father wasn't with you.

Mo N: No.

MN: Where was he?

Mo N: He was in Colorado, still working.

MN: And then so he joined the family when you were still at Centenary?

Mo N: No, no. We went out to San Dimas, and then he joined us in San Dimas. And when he joined us, then we had to come back, move back into town again, so he got a job as a caretaker for this estate, this big old house up on Pico and Arlington. If you notice, on that part of the thing, that's right by Country Club Drive, between Pico and Olympic, were these big old houses there. So we were at this Westchester, one block west of Arlington, a big house there, so we took care of that. We lived on top of the garage.

MN: Let me go back to Centenary again. Now right after the war, was the Centenary hostel still on Normandie?

Mo N: Yeah.

MN: And what was that like? What was the living situation like in the hostel?

Mo N: Well, all of them were pretty much the same. The sexes were separated, and we slept on the army cots like we did in camp. So it wasn't too different. And everybody assumed, knew that it was just temporary.

MN: So if the men and the women were separated, where did the kids sleep?

Mo N: Well, if you were small then you slept with your moms unless you're a girl, and then if you got old enough, then you slept with your dad on the men's side.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.