<Begin Segment 18>

AI: What do you recall about the actual leaving? When you actually, that day, when you were...?

KM: Oh, well, we slept on the floor with just an empty house. It was, I don't know, it just, I don't, it just, I can't express that feeling. Jack and I were married for one month when we evacuated.

AI: Oh, tell me about that. How did you decide to get married at that time?

KM: Well, the two matchmakers -- my side and his side -- that was the custom. And they said that there's been a rumor that when you go to camp, we're gonna be all in one barrack. You don't know if you're gonna be all one family together, or some people that you don't know. So she said, "Best thing is that, if you're gonna get married, to get married before you go into camp so you'll be settled." So we, that's why we hurried our marriage. And then we're married one month before we got into camp.

AI: So, where were you living for that month?

KM: Huh?

AI: Where were you living for that month?

KM: In Fowler.

AI: The two of you?

KM: In a cam -- in a little, it wasn't a farm -- right next to a big barn. Kinda like a, where they put the hays and things. But they kinda cleaned it up for us to stay there. And at nighttime I could hear the rats going up and down. [Laughs] But, we thought, "Well, this is better than going into assembly center, 'cause if we had stayed in Los Angeles until our evacuation took place, we would have been in the Santa Anita Racetrack. And then there was a rumor you slept in the horse stall on the hay. And so we thought, "(This) was better," so that's why we opted for evacuat -- voluntary evacuation. But eventually we, everything was halted, so we had to go into camp.

AI: So, you and Jack were living together for one month after you were married, and you had to get rid of even the things that you had brought then. And you were just saying that the night before your house was empty, because you had gotten rid of everything.

KM: Uh-huh. 'Course, in that one month we had to prepare for evacuation. We had to get a duffel bag. Do you have a duffel bag? Oh, 'cause I have one of mine, yet. And Janis -- I was gonna throw it away, and Janis said, "No, don't throw it away. Give it to me. I'll go give it to the museum." [Laughs] But anyway, we can only take what we can carry. We had one suitcase and one duffel bag.

AI: What did you bring? What kinds of things did you pack?

KM: Duffel bag? Well, the one that we made was a big heavy gunnysack. Like almost like a canvas. And you can push and push and push, but it gets awful heavy [Laughs] the more you pushed.

AI: Did you bring your sewing machine?

KM: No. I didn't take. I got that sent later on. That's another story in itself. [Laughs]

AI: Wow. So what did you think was gonna be essential? Do you remember some of the things that you took with you?

KM: Well, first, the way the government gave us a list and says, "warm clothing and utensils that you could feed yourself." So we got those tin, not tin, but cup and saucer, and so forth. And we didn't even use it. And here we searched all over town because they were getting kinda, well, people were buying them so much that they ran out. So we had to take a next best thing. But I've got one cup left. A white cup with a little red edge on it. Enamel. But we didn't even use it. But I just kept that for, for remembering.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.