<Begin Segment 15>

DH: How about your family, Kay, what did you do during those eight days?

KN: Oh, it was hectic. Probably not as hectic as his, but there were eight of us to think about, you know, evacuation. And, of course, when they said, take only what you can carry, and in those days you were lucky to get one suitcase apiece. When I think back now, if Dad were able to get two for each of us, I know I could have carried two suitcases.

DH: But you simply didn't have that kind of thing.

KN: No, but I wore my heavy suit and I wore my overcoat and I wore my hat, my best clothes. And where were we going? Where it was hot, which we didn't know.

DH: What else did you pack?

KN: Oh, very few clothes that I had and some of the things that I treasured. That's it.

DH: You said it was hard to pack not knowing how long you'd be gone.

KN: That's right. We just didn't know and then our suitcase was limited, one suitcase, so we really had to make choices. And so a lot of the things we stored in one big bedroom upstairs thinking that maybe we'll be gone about six months. I don't know how I got that six months bit, but that always stuck in my head. We were going to be gone about six months or thereabouts so everything will be okay, but after three and a half years, the tenant had gone in with a pass key and helped herself to lots of things up there that you were not able to get during the war, you know, like towels and sheets. And living on the farm, we used to buy things by the cases like coffee and canned salmon, canned milk, and rice by the sacks. And we stored everything up there because most of the things were gone.

DH: Sam, you were talking earlier about the young woman who was the head of her family since her father had been taken away. So during that eight days I recall you saying that you had gone out to help her pack, and she didn't know what exactly to do. She had to care for her young people, her younger siblings. Is that right?

IN: No. My dad was released by the FBI.

DH: No, not your father, but another young woman on the island, that other young woman on the island who turned out to be the head of her household since her father had been taken away and you were helping. So you were not only helping your family, but you were helping other families then get ready during those eight days as you were translating for them and the phone was ringing off the hook.

IN: Yeah. It was a period of time where everybody was trying help each other out as much as possible. And so it was a very, very difficult time. That's all I can...

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.