<Begin Segment 11>

KN: So how long were you on board this ship, do you remember?

EK: You know, I don't exactly remember. I think I have it written someplace, but it must have been several weeks at least. I have to dig out my papers.

KN: And where did you arrive at?

EK: I think we went through the Panama Canal, and then onto a bus and then train and then to Crystal City. And I have that written out, too, yeah, because I don't quite remember the details but my husband did, so he helped me with that. And so then when we got to Crystal City, everybody was lined up to welcome us, but we couldn't really... we had to be quarantined because someone had, was it chicken pox or something? [Laughs] So we had to wait again. But at least we did meet Daddy.

KN: And that was the first time you had seen him in a few months?

EK: Oh, yeah, six, seven... no, maybe longer.

KN: Even longer?

EK: Yeah, maybe about eight months maybe.

KN: And he had never seen your younger sister.

EK: No, no. So that's when my mother held his hand -- and she was always proud of his hand, because he did have beautiful hands. I mean, he was an artist; I saw some of the work later and I said, "Oh, my gosh, he could have succeeded as an artist, he was so good." But laboring in the jungle with shovels and stuff, in the hot sun, it just changed his whole appearance, especially his hands were all, like, hard and dark and callused.

KN: So when your family reunited at Crystal City... so you had arrived at the camp and you had been quarantined for a bit. And then you were sent to the...

EK: Oh, in this hut. And it was so hot in Crystal City.

KN: Can you describe Texas, Crystal City?

EK: It was... all I remember was the cots, the metal cots. Even the thin mattress, because of the metal cot, underneath this roof it would be so hot we could not sleep. You could not touch it, you could burn yourself. So then my father would hose the whole floor to cool it off. And I know that we were little so we didn't do this, but the teenagers, especially guys, would sleep underneath. They were on stilts like some of the Hawaii homes, and they would dig underneath the house, which is the coolest, yeah. So I know some of the teenage guys said, "Oh, yeah, we couldn't sleep in the house so we used to go underneath and sleep there."

KN: But your dad had wet the floor.

EK: Yeah, yeah, he did, but I suppose not everyone did it. My dad did, but he also built on this so the roofline would be higher. And that's when he realized how rich U.S. was, because when he asked, can he use the lumber that's lying around, 'cause they were still building things, they said, "Oh, yeah, go ahead." [Laughs] And so he would build like a, kind of a lanai, but with a high pitched roof. And so we had a more comfortable place, but it was still hot.

KN: Can you describe, was it a family living quarter area that you all slept in?

EK: You know, I don't remember too much other than the hot cot. The mattress even got hot.

KN: I can just imagine Texas, and you have...

EK: It's hot.

KN: And was it dry, was it dusty?

EK: It was very dusty, of course, it was very dusty. I do remember the camp. We were surrounded by barbed wire with every so many yards guards with their guns. They're not, as they said, "protecting." Of course, they were aiming at us. And one man did go a little berserk and ran towards the fence. There was a fence, barbed wire fence, and then, I don't know how many feet, and then a big ditch, which was deep enough that when it rained a lot, it would inundate it and you could drown in it. We children could drown in it, it was that deep. And then space and then -- this is later when we moved to the better-quality German houses. [Laughs] And so, yeah, it was not pleasant. But you know, when you're children, if you're with your parents, it doesn't matter. You don't think about the hardship because children, I think, are happy as long as the parents are together, really, and you have enough to eat, which we were provided very well. Because I think... in our case, I think in the beginning I don't remember, but later, Mother was able to cook, yeah. So we had our own little cooking area, things like that.

KN: Many internees, it was just these houses or huts, areas, they tried to beautify it, they made some gardens. Do you recall if your family made it a home...

EK: Yes. Well, in the beginning, there was nothing like that. But later, I think probably right after the Germans left, we were able to move to their homes, which was better-built. It had a shower, it had a toilet, it had a sink.

KN: Inside?

EK: Inside the house, yeah. And even then you see the inequality of things. And so those with children were able to move to those houses, better houses. It did have a little yard in the front with a tree and some... I remember climbing the tree, I was very tomboyish. [Laughs] And play around with the neighborhood kids. But he did build, he did do gardening, so we had like watermelon, I don't remember tomatoes, but I'm sure he did. But I remember watermelons and cucumbers and melons and things like that. And beans, beans.

KN: Was your father exaggerating when he said the soil was so fertile, he says these watermelons were so huge that sometimes two children would have to carry them.

EK: Yes, exactly. So he says, "How in the world did Japan go to war with this country that's so rich?" Even the soil is rich compared to the Hokkaido soil which was very poor. And he said, "Anything grows. Look at the beans. In one night, it's already a couple of inches tall." So we did have string beans, too. [Laughs]

KN: So was your routine living there in the camp since you folks... you mentioned that you went to Japanese school?

EK: Yes, we did. In the beginning we went to Japanese school because later someone told me that they encouraged that because, "They're going to ship you off to be used as hostage exchange." And so yeah, so I read all the books that were in the library. And after the war, though, then we started to go to English school because I think they might have closed the Japanese school.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.