<Begin Segment 8>

LH: So he ultimately ended up in Missoula and made his way through several camps. And in the meantime what happened to your family, because the Executive Order 9066 was signed a few days before his arrest, so what occurred in your family then?

MN: I think my mom just really had it tough. I think my father went through a lot of emotional different 'cause he was such an optimist. He just really always -- any minute now he was going to be released until he was, until that moment that he was put on the train. I think it didn't dawn on him that this is serious stuff. People were crying and worrying and he kept saying, "Oh, things will turn out. Things will turn out." And he'd go to sleep snoring and they wake him up saying, "The rest of us are really worried here and we appreciate it if you stop snoring." But I guess that was a turning point when he really started getting serious. So I think it was a more emotional thing for my father. My mom, she paid a high price. I think most of the Issei women paid just a dear, dear price with getting no recognition for the kind of pain that they went through. And not only was she in dire straits, she had four little girls. The oldest one was just eleven and the youngest one was just a baby yet, toddler yet, and they were all girls, well...

LH: So you how did she cope with this?

MN: I don't know. I really don't know. I kind of wonder where did she find the energy to try to pack up everything. And not only that, most of your friends are in the same shape you were in. They were not in any way to help you. The money was frozen so it was harder for her to -- I do recall a story where she went to one family and said that I know that things are tight now. It is for everybody, but if there is any possibility that you pay back some of the money that we loaned you, we would really appreciate it 'cause we're... apparently she made a plea like this 'cause this family owed my father some money. And she said she could have taken it if the family just says, "No. We just don't have any extra money now," but she said she was cold-bloodedly told, "We borrowed this money from your husband, not you." Part of the Japanese American community in those days were pretty brutal to woman that are single. Even today it's true in mainstream America, single woman have a harder hoe and now it doesn't matter how you got separated from your husband. My father was taken away, but Mom had a terrible time trying to -- I'm sure that she had to cope with a whole heck of a lot more than she ever told us about. But she's a tough lady. She made it through. Even her brother, who was her personal emotional support system, wasn't around then. I think he went into hiding 'cause he just, I was later told that he was one of the last people that were incarcerated. So even he, who was her mainstay support, wasn't around so I don't know how she did it. And then by the time that we really had to get on the buses to leave, the oldest daughter, the eleven year old, had to carry the baby and...

LH: Do you have much recollection of evacuation? You had to be maybe five?

MN: Five, yeah. I remember this music box that my uncle gave me, and I thought it was the most glorious thing. It was just a gift from heaven. It was just wonderful and somehow I was told I had to leave it behind, and I knew we were going somewhere and I'm not going to get back this music box and parting myself with this music box was agony. [Laughs] I don't know why. And I think somehow they slipped it into the goods later on 'cause I do recall it later. Either they replaced it or something, but I know that the separation from this music box was awful. I was going to be a musician of some sort and this was the beginning of my career. I knew that I would never be a musician if I could never have this little music box. [Laughs] That, I recall directly, yeah. The other thing I recall directly before camp is when Grandma died, and I remember when we were leaving for camp somebody says, "Isn't it nice that she died that she didn't have to go through this." But when Grandma died, the adults were in the turmoil and people were coming in and out of the house, and they told me that Grandma was in this little can. And they didn't tell me it was a joke in a funny way like adults sometime talk to kids. They were seriously telling me that Grandma was in this little can, and I knew that was ridiculous, but since they were telling me with that tone, I had said, "Okay. If Grandma is in that box, little can, let her out." And then everybody starting crying and that was dumb thing for a little kid to say kind of stuff. And I could never quite understand what that was. I had to piece that together way later [Laughs] what that was about. And then I remember just before camp, someone says, "Good thing she died that she don't have to be a part of this." That I remember. No, I can't remember much else of that.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.