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TI: How about the ship, going to the ship? Do you remember that?

JN: Oh, yeah, just going inside, we were given a room, one room for all our brothers and sisters. We took our belongs, whatever we could carry, some were confiscated, they took it away from us. In fact, my sister would, she hid some money in her shoes and they took that away. Anything else, I don't know, that's all they told me.

TI: Yeah, I read a story about your sister, I guess she was even kind of limping a little bit because maybe some money, and maybe, I think she had like a pencil or pen in there, too, so it was a little awkward. So when you went to this small room on the ship, I believe it was your mother and your sisters and then the younger, the boys. And they took your father and older brother to a different place?

JN: Yeah, they were belowdeck. All the males, belowdeck, kept away from the family.

TI: Okay, so they separated the men and the older boys away from the families. During the trip, did you ever get to see each other?

JN: No, just my mother and brother, sister, I never had a chance to see them. But I heard my father was in very bad shape down below.

TI: How? So like getting very sick?

JN: Very sick from being seasick. And I don't know how well they were eating. Well, funny thing, I'll tell you, it took us about three weeks from Peru to where we landed. We had only cookies, I believe, a can like so big, I don't know how we brought that, but that was something to eat for me and the family. Besides that, I remember I would, at that age, you wander, like you wander around the ship, somehow, I did, with my sister. We looked around and wanted to see what's going on. And my sister opened up this door, and it was a mess hall. And she opened it up and you could smell some of the food. So there were people eating there, and we sat down at a table, and I guess we didn't think about people that were there, and we were kind of hungry, too, at the same time we were sick. And we were fed. They gave us two plates, and it was sauerkraut and sausage. Oh, when you're sick, you don't want smell the sauerkraut, and I still remember, we didn't get to eat sauerkraut, we munched on the sausage and we left right away and went back to our room. That's the only time I remember. Oh, another time it was a drill, "Everybody get on deck," "Everybody get on deck," so we all got on deck. And the reason was somebody said, "Oh, I think a Japanese submarine was nearby." That's what they told us. So we did a drill. By then, the time went so fast, the three weeks to me was kind of fast, because nothing else to do. But anyway, that was my pastime on the ship.

TI: And as you walked around the ship, did you meet any of the other prisoners that were there?

JN: You know, once I was, again, wandering around, and somehow, I don't know why, but when you look down, down the stairs, you could see the stairs going down, and I saw the men. I didn't see my father, they were down below, all together.

TI: Could you see how many? Were there lots of men?

JN: Well, you can't see, only from the top, can't see many people. I remember that. So like I say, (six) years old, we were always, want to do something.

TI: Did you have any idea of where you were going?

JN: No, no one told us anything. Even my mother and father, they (didn't know) where we were going. We just went along, whenever they went, we went. So that was, until we landed in the United States, we had to go through the Panama Canal.

TI: Yeah, so what was that like? That must have been interesting. Were you able to see the Panama Canal?

JN: No. I tell you, take a little peek, if there were shades, but that's all.

TI: Oh, so they made you stay inside?

JN: Yeah, so they used to have that, nothing more than that. Of course, you could see the water when we landed, it was almost green-like.

TI: But when you were going through the Panama Canal, did you know that was the Panama Canal?

JN: No.

TI: Oh, so you didn't know what was going on?

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