<Begin Segment 8>

KN: So your father was taken to Lima.

EK: Lima, yes.

KN: And in the meantime, what was going on with your family? Did you hear any news, did you know where he was? What was your mother doing?

EK: Yeah, I think my dad had told her before departing, "Go on with the business." Because he was very forward-looking, and he says, "All the businesses have been taken over," because it's under the husband's name. But he said, "You are a native citizen, so therefore I'm going to change the store in your name and you could run it. As long as it's under your name, they cannot take it away from you." So she did, she was running it. But later, when my father was taken to Callao, the port of Callao and taken onboard to, at that time we didn't know where, but it happened to be Panama, he had sent a very, kind of amusing letter implying, "No matter what, let's be together." And so she was very confused, because in between I think there was another correspondence which she never actually received. And so she then had to sell the inventory and sell the store. But when people know you have to sell, you don't get anything, right? You almost should just give it away. But she didn't. She had so much inventory, 'cause she was able to buy from anybody. And other Japanese people could not.

KN: As a Peruvian national?

EK: Yeah, because she was a Peruvian national. But the money... so when my dad wrote this funny telegram, they all censor it, the U.S. But he knew enough not to make it obvious. So he would say things like -- which I wish I had those letters, it would be so good to have it and put it in the museums, but none exist. And I think he, or they kind of explained to me at one time that he would write, like, "Oh, the monkeys up the tree are making noises," so you knew that he must have been someplace in the jungle, and he was in the jungle in the Panama Canal zone jungle. And things like that. So other letters that other fathers wrote or husbands wrote were full of holes so you could hardly read anything. [Laughs]

KN: All of them were honest letter-writers.

EK: Yes.

KN: And they said he was so skilled in communicating what had happened and where he was, that the families of these honest letter-writers would actually go to your mother and ask her what is happening because they were so censored.

EK: Yes, censored. You cannot, it's full of holes. That's true. So my dad was very smart, I think. And that's how we were able to survive. I mean, how can you survive with nothing and then have five children, then later six children? I think, my gosh...

KN: Was your... here's your mother left behind with a number of children. Is she also taking care of her parents, your grandparents, at the same time?

EK: Well, luckily at that time my grandparents were young enough to help us. So it was a good thing they were there, 'cause then my auntie, who was a teenager, would take over the lessons. And even before she passed on a few years back, she said, "You know, you realize" -- which I didn't -- "in camp, we were encouraged to go to Japanese school," in our camp. Because our camp, Crystal City, Texas, internment camp, they called it, was meant to be used as hostage exchange. So they encouraged learning Japanese for the children. And so my auntie said to me, "You realize it's because I taught you that in camp, you just went from nothing to third grade," which I didn't realize, cause I didn't know about grades. My father never said, "Oh, you're now in first grade or second grade," we just learned, you know. And so I didn't realize 'til an adult that I was in the third grade.

KN: You were so advanced because of your aunt's effort?

EK: Yeah, that's what she said. [Laughs]

KN: "You can thank me later because I made you learn Japanese."

EK: Yes, yes.

KN: So your mother's family was helping her out and raising the children.

EK: Were helping with the kids, yeah.

KN: And meantime, what news was your mother receiving from your father?

EK: Yeah, so in the letter, he said there's a boat, a ship, that's leaving the port of Callao, I forget what date. But my mother was pregnant with my sister Martha, and so then after she was born, we sold everything and went to Lima, and from Lima to Callao, to get on board. But I think we missed the one that he wanted us to be on, so we went on one of the last ones, I believe.

KN: So who accompanied you?

EK: So all of us.

KN: So your grandparents and...

EK: Yes, my grandparents, my auntie, and us.

KN: Do you know what your mother did with the money that she had sold...

EK: Oh, yeah, that was cash. People didn't use credit cards, it was cash. So she entrusted this man called Juan, I won't say his last name, because he came through Obaachan, whose friend was Juan's mother and parents. She said, "Well, they are from Kyushu, so we could help them work and they could earn a living." And so he worked for us after Daddy left. And so she trusted him, of course. So she said, "You take this money" -- 'cause we no longer had the banks, right? And even if we did, no use, 'cause we were already leaving for the U.S. So she told him, "Keep it for us until we return, or if we need it, then please send it to us." Well, evidently, when you give someone who has nothing all this cash, it's cash. You are tempted, and he was, and he did. And so he ran away with it, so we had nothing. We could have had an easier life, my parents could have had an easier life had he been very honest, but that's, some human beings are too weak, and he was a weak person, tempted by money.

KN: Later your mother did see him.

EK: Oh, yeah, isn't that something? On their first trip back to Peru, they're just walking a street of Lima and she recognizes him. He was shabbily dressed, and she said, "Juan, you made us suffer!"

KN: Did he recognize...

EK: Yes, he did, he did. And I'm sure he felt shame, because he turned around and ran. But my father stopped my mother and said it's like, what is that called, water under the bridge. "Mou wasurenasai, forget it." And, "Look, we're in a better position than he is. When you do something like that, you always suffer someplace, emotionally or physically or both. And looks like he suffered both ways, so let him go. That's okay, it's past already." So that was my father's philosophy.

KN: So I'm imagining your mother...

EK: Oh, I would have been furious, too. [Laughs]

KN: She has all these burdens and she's pregnant. She gives it to someone and he takes off with the money when you need it the most.

EK: Yes. We could have used it after camp. Oh my gosh, we could have used it.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.