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KN: So your mother is with young children and pregnant, and going out to camp. What was your impression about what's happening? Your mother is liquidating the store, packing up everything...

EK: It was just a busy household. But you know, we had, we were so little, and we just played. We just played among ourselves, really, in the backyard, 'cause it's a huge place where you could run around and there was, like, a certain area by the window, had this dirt that was more like clay. So we made dishes, dried in the hot sun, and use it for mamagoto, you know, home...

KN: Merchandise... play...

EK: Play, yes, play cooking and things like that, we did that. And then he had also made, for us, swings. He made it himself.

KN: Who?

EK: My dad. It wasn't like now where you just go to the store and order and get it and set it up, no. He made everything. He made the swings, he made a high jump, the, what do you call... seesaws, things like that, he made all of those things in the backyard. Oh, yeah.

KN: Do you remember the voyage? Did you go by car?

EK: I don't, you know, I don't remember the voyage to Callao, but on the ship, my mother tells me that because the child was only like three months old, but she could not nurse like she nursed all of us. So I think it was all that emotional trauma, that she couldn't have milk. And so she bought a lot of PET Milk, Carnation milk, and stuffed it in the luggage. But we did not receive, she said she never had the notice. Maybe being in a smaller town, my husband's family said, oh, they got information that you cannot pack any food of any type. But she didn't know it, and she was thinking about the children, too, so she packed it. Well, when we got to Callao, they dumped all of that, so she didn't have anything. And that's when she told me later that here she was trying to feed the baby, and only blood would come to her breast. And so she begged the American soldier, please, she didn't know English, so she would plead in Spanish, "Please, milk for my baby," and he would pretend not to understand. I mean, how stupid can you be? You know what I mean? It's just very prejudicial. But later, when a Filipino soldier got on guard, then she said, "Por favor," you know, in Spanish, "give me some milk for my baby," and he did for her. So from that time on she had milk.

KN: This is for your youngest sister.

EK: For my baby sister, the one that's wearing the dress my Auntie Juana made, yeah. And I remember that dress. This is another story -- I remember all these things. I must have been about four when I was visiting my grandmother in Canete, and she also had gone to sewing school and pattern making and all that. So she was making this blue dress out of silk, thick silk, it's called seda in Peru. Do you know Spanish?

KN: No, I don't know Spanish. I know some...

EK: Oh, okay. And so she was making this with little embroidered at the bottom with little baskets with little flowers on it, which I still remember, 'cause it meant so much to me. And all of a sudden there was this horrific earthquake. And my mother, I mean, grandma's emperor's picture, you know, everybody had those. Like you, if you were British, it was probably Queen Elizabeth or something. Well, she had emperor's picture. They all came down, things from the little store came down, people were screaming outside but she said, "(Mesa)no shita ikinasai," you know, "go under the table," 'cause this table was one of those very thick old-fashioned tables, very sturdy, hardly anything would hurt it. And stuff fell on it, but we were safe under that table, absolutely safe. But when we came out after the earthquake, people were crying, some of the adobe houses had crumbled, but luckily we were okay. And that was my experience of going through an earthquake in Peru.

KN: In Peru there were earthquakes.

EK: Oh, yeah. Still are.

KN: It's so different.

EK: Yeah, but that was one of the severe ones.

KN: So going back to your mother trying to get milk for your sister, as she's trying, did you folks know where you were going?

EK: Well, by that time we knew that we were going to be meeting my father someplace. We didn't know exactly where, but we knew we just follow the boat. And this ship was, I think, a transport ship. I think it was called Vapor Cuba. And we were, because we had little kids, my mother and how many of us children, five children, were allowed in this very narrow room, but you had to, it was a bunk bed, so I'm sure we all shared. It's a good thing we were little, really. I don't know where... Grandpa I think was down below deck, because he was a male, grownup male. And then, but all of us were in this thing, but it was so hot because you could not open the window, especially at night. All the lights had to be off because enemies could see light, so they told us to shut everything off and no light, nothing. And then that's how we lived there. But occasionally we were allowed on deck, and that's when all the children would just, you know, be so happy. And that's the first time I saw the, I guess they're swordfish that jumps, schools of these things. And that's the thing I remember about this period of our lives.

KN: How many children were there? I mean, how many families were there?

EK: There were many families, there were many families, I don't know how many.

KN: All from Peru or from different areas?

EK: I think on our ship that I know of, they were from Peru. There could have been from other areas, but mostly from Peru. Even if you read some of the books, I believe that a majority were from Peru anyway. There were a few from other places, but majority were from Peru.

KN: So during the day, sometimes the children could run around the ship.

EK: Yes, yes, and that was a joy just to get out of that stuffy room because not only were we stuffed in there, we also had these heavy lifesavers. It's jacket, but it's not like present-day light thing that people wear on water, it was heavier, waxy, and this wax had a terrible smell. And so, but we had to keep in there just in case. And I think we had drills, too, to put this thing on. So it was not pleasant.

KN: Your father remembered that same smell. He said he had to sleep when he was on his transport ship. He says he remembered that same...

EK: Oh, I don't remember that part.

KN: He said he remembered that, "I had to sleep on it," and he said, the smell.

EK: Oh yeah, oh, the smell was awful. Yeah the smell was terrible.

KN: What was the food like?

EK: Awful. [Laughs] Well, remember, Peruvian food, if you've eaten Peruvian food, it's very tasty, and there's a lot of seafood because the Pacific Ocean is in there, very cold, so the fish is very firm and very tasty, and you get all kind of mariscos, you know, clams and all kinds of seafood. And so here we're having our first American meal, that was so awful. I mean, like frankfurters and sauerkraut. And that smell inside an enclosed place with that sourness? We said, "Oh, can't eat this stuff." [Laughs] Now we've gotten to like hot dogs, but it took a long time.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.