BN: Do you remember how you found out that you were going to have to leave and that the family was going to have to be taken away?

NK: Oh, well, there was posters on the telephone poles saying that we had to be evacuated, and a lot of it was word of mouth. The older Niseis read the signs and relayed all the information to the Isseis, and word got around.

BN: What do you remember about actually leaving and going on to Manzanar?

NK: Well, the best I can remember, it was April of 1942 that we had to... got the notice that our area... we were to assemble at a certain place and get on the bus. They didn't tell us where we were going. Maybe they did, but I was too young to know any better. But it was, our gathering point was at Venice Boulevard and Lincoln Boulevard in Venice. There were many buses that came there, and we all got on the bus, and it was a convoy from that place up to Manzanar. And so except for rest stops (now and then), the bus went directly from this spot in Venice to Manzanar.

BN: Who in your family actually went?

NK: Okay, at Venice, my father was taken into, by the FBI, so he was no longer with us.

BN: He's somewhere, interned somewhere else at this point.

NK: Well, we didn't know where he was at the time, but I believe one of the first areas that the enemy aliens were gathered was Fort Missoula, Montana. And we didn't know it at the time, but I don't know how much longer it was after that, that we found out where he was. But at Manzanar, my mother, my brother, Minoru, and my sister Shizuye had just gotten married before we came into camp. So it was like a honeymoon for them to go in from everyday life to Manzanar, and then there's Kazuye and myself. And we were, except for Shizuye, there was four of us that ended up in Manzanar.

BN: Were you all in one room?

NK: Yes. When we first got there, as we got off the bus, they assigned the rooms to the families. And depending on how big a family it was, they assigned a room to you. And so in our case, there was four people, so there was a room that was assigned for us four.

BN: Was it the smallest room or the middle? There were three sizes.

NK: Yeah, I don't remember exactly, but we were in the center area, and it was (not) the smaller size room. Because I remember there was one family that had an adult brother, that they took up almost half a barrack, I remember.

BN: And then what block were you in?

NK: We were in Block 18, and Barrack 5, Apartment 2.

BN: Were other people in Block 18 from the same area?

NK: Yes. As the bus came to, got into Manzanar, they drove the truck right up to the block where you're going to get off. And then as you got off, it said, they pointed to us to go to, which apartment to go to. And there had to be a lot of refinements made to that particular arrangement, but that was a basic rule was that you got off the bus, and try this for size, you might say. And if it was too small for a family, they would find another apartment or take two apartments in a row.

BN: So the people from Venice were kind of in the same area?

NK: Yes. I would say our block was, at the time, was mostly from Venice or Santa Monica.

BN: So a lot of your friends were nearby.

NK: So we got to know everybody eventually, but even when we first got in, I would say we knew eighty percent of the people.

BN: What happened to Shizuye and her husband? Where did they go?

NK: Okay, they were assigned an apartment in the same block as us, but because they had the mother-in-law and his brother and so forth, the apartment was either too small or too big, and so they had to... they requested another arrangement. And what happened was they ended up in Block 36, which is the last block in the camp. And that was kind of at diagonals to the camp and work, Block 18 was at one end, and Block 36 was at the northern end. And they, my sister and her husband Kenso Kiyohiro, moved to Block 36, so it kind of broke our family up. But my sister's mother-in-law was very happy with the arrangement.

BN: Now at Manzanar, you started school, right? (What grade were you in?)

NK: After we got, things settled down a little bit, they had a attempt to start the school. And I was just getting into the seventh grade, I believe. So just getting out of grammar school... sixth grade and going into seventh grade. (There) was kind of a voluntary... I don't think attendance was kept that well, but I do remember going to a class and it was very, very informal. This is before they got the high school organized (at the bottomg end of the...) the high school, which was near the highway.

BN: I always ask people this because I'm interested, but what were the bathrooms like as you recall?

NK: Well, the bathrooms, each block had an apartment, but in the center, each had a men's restroom and a women's restroom. And I remember the toilet seats were, like you see in the old army pictures, and there were no walls or anything separating one seat from the other, and it was very, very humiliating. It was hard to get used to, but as time went along, everything worked out.

BN: What about the mess hall arrangement?

NK: Yes, there was one mess hall for each block, and also a laundry room. And there was also one barrack set aside for a recreation room, and that was kind of left up to each block to designate what they wanted to do with it, I believe. But it was a place that we could go when the weather was bad.

BN: Was your recreation room used for anything in particular? I mean, some of them became churches or clubhouses for Boy Scouts or whatever.

NK: Well, they had, as time went along, they organized a Boy Scout troop. And, in, fact, my brother-in-law, Kenso Kiyohiro, was one of the founders of the Boy Scout troop in Manzanar, and he enjoyed doing that. He was involved in that before he went into camp, so he kind of carried on with what he was doing when the war started.

BN: Were you in the Boy Scouts?

NK: Well, I was right at the age of, I could almost join but was not old enough. You had to be twelve years old to join, and it was a matter of two or three months I was short of time, so I had to wait before I could join.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.