<Begin Segment 6>

BN: Do you have any memories of December 7th, hearing about the war beginning?

NK: Yeah. Sunday, December 7th, we were living in Venice on Redwood Avenue. And just prior to that day, the army were... set up anti-aircraft batteries down the street from us, and I see these trucks hauling these big artillery equipment, you might say. I didn't think much of it, but on Sunday when I see these... more trucks going up and down, we finally realized that that's what they were, they were anti-aircraft getting ready. So it seems, based on that, the United States Army knew something was going to happen, and naturally on December 7th, it did happen. The next day was school, and I went to school, but it was a very, very hostile feeling I had from my friends, the friends that yesterday were good friends, and the next day, they were not my friends.

BN: Then how did you find out about your father having been taken?

NK: Well, when I went to school and then I came home, that's on Monday, my mother told me that they took my father away. And my mother and brother were busy taking our photo albums, and in the backyard, built a bonfire and were burning up all the photographs. Because the thinking was that if they see these photographs, it's going to incriminate him, so they were getting rid of evidence, you might say. But I don't think that would have made any difference, now that the time has passed.

BN: And then were you able to communicate with him at all?

NK: Well, the first few days, we had no idea where he was. I believe the first, one of early places... the jail that he was taken to was the L.A. County Jail, and then he moved from there to the Terminal Island. They had a prison on Terminal Island, and I think there was a federal prison. And each time we hear that there was a movement of enemy aliens, which they were considered enemy aliens at that period, we would all get in the car and dash down. (I remember...) I don't know what day it was, but within that first week there, we all went down to Terminal Island and parked ourselves right outside the fence, waiting for a glimpse of them. And then one evening, we saw these gates open, and they were all loaded onto buses. There must have been four or five buses, and we didn't know where he was at first. But the buses were taking the prisoners down to downtown Los Angeles to the train depot to ship them out of state. But as the buses headed towards the Union Station, my father got to the back window and we saw clearly that it was him, and we waved at him. That was the closest we got to seeing him since the war started.

BN: Did he see you?

NK: Pardon?

BN: Did he see you?

NK: Yes, yes. We got up right behind the bus and we were able to wave at each other.

BN: Now, what's happening with the farm during this time?

NK: Well, the farm was, we had some Hispanic workers, and one was almost a steady worker because we had enough work for one person to work the year round. And the equipment, farming equipment, and the crop that was out there was, it was taken over by this Hispanic man called Ramon. And he didn't have any money, so I don't know the details because my brother was handling all that. But I would say that we just walked away from what we had, and had to leave it there. And people like Ramon had a bonanza.

BN: The farm was, the land was leased, right?

NK: Yes, my father leased the land.

BN: So did Ramon just, presumably, take over the farm?

NK: Well, it's hard to know exactly what happened, because the land itself was owned by a Japanese person, an Issei. And he had property all over the place, and one of them that my father leased. And I don't know what happened between Ramon and the other landowners.

BN: But when you came back, the family didn't, never went back to the farm?

NK: No. When everything settled down after the war ended, you might say we kind of washed our hands of farming, and there was nothing recovered from the farming.

BN: What is that area today, over where the family farmed?

NK: The farm is, if you're familiar with the Venice area, on Washington Boulevard, there's a Costco. And that one block, and block and a half south of Washington Boulevard and Glencoe, there's a patch of land that my father leased, and it is now a multi-level apartment houses there. My father was on the farthest north of all the ranchers, and then south of Washington Boulevard was practically all Japanese farmers.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.