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VY: Okay. Well, so that was your time in camp, and so let's move on to life after camp. And at this point, we're thinking you were around age...

MM: Four.

VY: Four. So tell me about that. you said you do remember leaving camp?

MM: I do remember the train ride. I thought that was the coolest thing, being on a train. Okay, so I do remember that, not in detail, but I just remember being on a train, it was the first time I'd ever been on a train. And after that, I didn't know this personally, but my mom said that the first place we lived in was a hotel in skid row, and I thought, "You're kidding." I mean, this is when I knew what skid row hotels were like. But I guess we must have only been there a little while, and then we moved to the Montrose Apartments right by the Buddhist church here. And I do have that remembrance. There was a couple of incidents that I do remember. One was that my brother Shoji had walked over to the railing, and he was dangling his feet over the railing, and my mom was scared he was going to fall off. So I don't remember if I actually remember or whether my mom told the story because it was so traumatic. She thought he was going to fall off, so she knew not to yell at him. So she enticed him to come over to her with some food. I thought that was really funny because he always liked food.

And the other thing was that there was an earthquake, and it was the first earthquake I noticed or felt or knew was weird. And I remember walking over on the table and my uncle was there, my mother's brother. He was there living with us, I think, at the time, and he was a great help during our whole entire life. So anyway, he was there, so those are the two things I remember. So we lived there for I don't know how long, I can't tell you, I have no idea. And then we moved to Twelfth Avenue right where juvenile detention is, there used to be a grocery store, we used to cross Twelfth Avenue like nobody's business. And it's just amazing to me that my parents didn't worry about the traffic. We knew how to cross the street without getting hit, because my cousins and I, we would always go over and my mom would ask me to... she would go there and get stuff. I don't know if I should mention this now, but my mom was very, very ill. Should I mention this? After my youngest brother... well, first of all...

VY: Was this related to camp, her experience in camp?

MM: First it started with camp and my brother Shoji being born in the most horrendous way possible, and she didn't heal properly.

VY: Why don't we talk about your parents' experience in a little bit?

MM: Okay.

VY: Yeah, we'll definitely get to that.

MM: Okay. Part of what happened to me after camp is related to what happened during camp. Because like Caitlin's dad, when he was born, my mom hemorrhaged really badly, and she took a taxi over to the hospital and came home, and she had lost so much blood, for the longest time, she just was always dizzy. She had to go back to work right away because we didn't have enough money, so she went back to work right away. So you know, she was always afraid she was going to faint. So my brother and I, Shoji, because my brother was just a babe, Shoji and I, we had this really strong connection. Because we were always together, and we were given a phone number to remember, and we always went with my mom. If she had to go out, we went with my mom, and if she fainted we were supposed to call this number. I forgot the question, sorry.

VY: Well, you know, this is really important, and you're right, this is related to what happened to your mom in camp.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2024 Densho. All Rights Reserved.