Densho Digital Repository - Hal Keimi Interview (Densho ID: ddr-densho-1000-458-13)

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BN: I guess we can move kind of to leaving camp now. Can you talk about how your family left? Because I know they were kind of split.

HK: Yeah, my family split up a lot, so when the war finally ended, the decisions were made, my brother was going to be in the twelfth grade, and so they decided he should leave early enough to get back to L.A. to start his twelfth grade at the beginning, that would be September of '45. So he went by himself, got on the train and we (knew) somebody that lived in Hollywood, a Japanese family that lived in Hollywood that said okay, my brother could stay with him. So he stayed with them so that he could end up going to Hollywood High, which I guess he and myself always wanted to do. So he left and came back and lived in Hollywood with a Japanese family and went to high school. And after high school, he and some buddies decided to join the army, so he ended up joining the army in '46 or '47. And then my father decided to leave the Heart Mountain camp on his own to go find a job somewhere to try to make some money for the family, so that when we get started again, he would have some money to help out with, so he left the camp and he went to the Northwest, I think, Washington or wherever, and he ended up working on the railroad. So that left my mother and myself, so I think the end of October of '45, we were one of the last ones to leave. And I think that was because I got ill, and so I could not leave, so that kept our release or leaving delayed, so we didn't leave until the end of October or early November. And sports-wise, that was a break for me because I had to stay in bed for all of, most of October. And October is baseball World Series time, and so I was able to listen to the 1945 World Series on the radio, so that also helped me on my sports background. So I got hooked on Major League Baseball because I had to stay in camp, and I listened to the '45 World Series. And so eventually we left, got on the train and came back and then we get back to L.A., we ended up in one of the three trailer camps that the government set up for people that were coming back to L.A.

BN: And which camp did you end up in?

HK: The trailer camp? We were in the Lomita trailer camp.

BN: Were the other people in there also, was it largely Heart Mountain people or was it a mixture?

HK: I have no idea who else was in there.

BN: Now, was it the one that was on Lomita airstrip?

HK: When I go by there, I think we were located very close to what's currently the intersection of Crenshaw and PCH, Pacific Coast Highway. And very close to the airport because while we were there, every so often we would see an airplane either taking off or landing, I think mainly it was landing, and it was very close to an airport.

BN: Yeah, so it's got to be the same. But was it all trailers, or were there also barracks that you remember?

HK: It was trailers and barracks, I know that, because one family, coincidentally a Harada family but not related to the Harada I mentioned before, the Harada family lived there, they lived in a barracks. And I know that family because one of the daughters ended up being my sister-in-law, she married my brother. And talking to her, she remembers a little bit about living in the barracks. She doesn't remember much because she was only there for, she said, for a couple of weeks because she got a job as a housegirl somewhere. But she remembers living in the barracks, whereas I lived in a small trailer with my mother.