<Begin Segment 17>

AI: Could you explain that "free zone"?

KM: Well, "free zone," see, we were in the "A zone," right by the coast, Los Angeles. And then I guess the military divided the different place. And then because of the inland, Fresno was "B zone", and we were able to go traveling anywhere as long as it was in the "free zone." Before, though, there was a time limit, certain time you can't travel any more. So, Jack's parents told us to come over. "We'll find a rental for you." And you know, you can all... so all our relatives got together and we all came to central California under their leadership.

AI: When was that?

KM: And then, well Jack's folks rented a different place where he found places to rent.

AI: Excuse me. When was that? Do you recall when you and all your relatives moved to the Fresno area?

KM: Uh, '42. Early part of '42.

AI: So that's when really your parents left the farm...?

KM: Farm, everything.

AI: ...and left everything in the fields, and...?

KM: Uh-huh. It was early March.

AI: And you also had to leave your shop...?

KM: Job.

AI: ...and...

KM: That's when all these, I, they all came to buy different things. But they didn't really come to buy, they just came to offer a little. [Laughs] But, like I said, my parents like were always poor. And then by that time, by Pearl Harbor, I built up, at that time it was quite a bit of money. And prior, so I had already sent my dad to Japan to build this new cemetery for the family. And then I bought a brand new car. And I was thinking, "If anything should happen to me, I would give it to my brother." And then so I hired a Bekins Storage, and we put all our belongings in there, as much as we could load. And I forgot how much it cost, but anyway. So those are the things that I had bought and then by that time, my money was practically gone too. And we evacuated into central California.

AI: And that was what they called "voluntary evacuation"?

KM: Yeah. Voluntary evacuation. Uh-huh. But, so for a time, about a month now I worked in the peach orchard and everything you know. And boy my hand got fuzzy and itchy, but we had to make some money to prepare for evacuation. Eventually they said they're gonna go to evacuation. So we were buying, trying to get warm clothing so we'd be comfortable. And we went to all these neighboring cities like Sanger, and Del Rey, and Kingsburg, and it was all sold out because all the Japanese were buying it. [Laughs] And then, we didn't even have to use it. Just rumors. We just followed the rumors. (People that were in the camps much colder made use of their warm clothing.)

AI: What did you think was gonna happen? What were the rumors about what was going to happen?

KM: Well, you know, I felt, me myself now, when we went into camp, I felt like we weren't never gonna come back. Or, when we evacuated, we didn't know what our future holds. I mean we didn't know where we were gonna be sent, or where we were gonna stay. It was just a kind of a hopeless thing.

AI: And how, what actually happened that week leading up to when you actually left?

KM: Well...

AI: Well, left the valley, I mean.

KM: In the meantime they had a curfew, and then they had a deadline of no more voluntary evacuation. So we just had to stay put until we get the date that we have to go into relocation center.

AI: Right.

KM: But those days kinda went, now that I, it's kinda vague now. I guess we try to forget so much. But we had to get inoculated. And then we got a family number, different things, you know.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.