<Begin Segment 7>

KN: So your father was taken away that day...

EK: Yeah, that same day. So it was like a nightmare. From heaven to nightmare, really, 'cause we had so much fun. We had not... how shall I say? Been rowdy or played like kids do, run around without a care in the world, and we were free outside, and there's Obaachan, Ojiichan, they all made musubis and all those kind of goodies, and some Peruvian food, and we were having a grand time. And then we came back, and then he was taken. So it was a complete shock. Complete shock. Then he was kept in the Ica jail for I don't know how long. I don't remember, several days, I think. And then they told my mother that he would be taken to Lima, to the bigger prison, and then after that they didn't know.

So that day I remember too, which is counted in the book, where we all gathered... oh, they were going to take him in the paddy wagon, which is filthy, and he said, "I am not a criminal. I will hire my own taxi, and you the detective, you folks come in with me so I don't run away." [Laughs] And so he hired a clean taxi and went to Lima. But on the way to Lima, he noticed, or he knew that there was a photographer, so he said, "Let me off here, and you guard me, and I want to leave a photo of myself to my family, 'cause who knows when we'll meet, or maybe never." And that is, to this day, my most favorite picture. Because from every angle, if you see him, looks like he's looking at you. Front, side, left, right, he looks like, it's like his spirit is embedded in there, for me.

KN: He's very well-dressed.

EK: Oh, yes.

KN: You look at this and to think that he's being arrested as a criminal and he doesn't know where he's going, this uncertain future...

EK: Yeah, but he knew he was not a criminal.

KN: And so he's dressed very well, three-piece suit and very well-groomed, and I was very struck by his appearance, which in a sense implied what he was going through.

EK: Yeah, because he says, "I'm not a criminal, so I'm not going ride in your paddy wagon. I have not done anything wrong, and here I'm being taken." They said, "We are sorry, but this is under the order of the U.S., so they had to do it. And remember at that time, if you read Professor Gardiner's book, the U.S. was giving to Peru the biggest financial help. I mean, more than twenty-eight million dollars in those days, that's quite a lot of money. I think was the biggest... what was that called? Funds to Peru, so they were glad to. And they were already glad to get rid of the Japanese because they were being so successful. Most of the Japanese were quite successful in Peru in a very short time. Not only my dad, I mean, my dad is... he says, "I was nothing really. I was the youngest." So when he saw his name in the blacklist, it's called lista negra, he thought that, "Wow, I'm among all these older, successful gentlemen, how come? I shouldn't be among their level," but he was because the Ica association, Peruvian Japanese Association, made him be the president of the association. He fought it. He says, "I don't have the time, I want to devote my time to my business and my family," and he refused several times. But they begged him, so finally he had to say yes. And that's how he was picked, because he was a community leader.

KN: So it was primarily older, distinguished men who were taken?

EK: Yes, at the beginning. In the beginning, then later I heard they took anybody off the street. Yeah. I met a Bob Shimabuku who passed away a few years back, in Los Angeles, and he says, "Yeah, I was just going to my uncle's house and they picked me up and took me to prison, and that was it." So later they were more desperate, so they took anybody if you looked Japanese.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.