<Begin Segment 30>

CN: And so then we were, since, then when the war came to an end and we could hardly wait to leave. Though you might be interested to know that there were a number of families who stayed until the very last.

AI: What was that about?

CN: That was because they had no place to go and it was, it was scary. And so what happened was that a good many of them waited until friends had gotten out, and then they would be able to at least have someplace to go. And we were, we came back here in August, and it was...

AI: August of '46, was it?

CN: August of '45. And so it was, there were a few Japanese businesses open on Jackson Street. And I remember very vividly the three of us sitting on the train, carrying my mother's ashes. And what we discussed, that's all I could remember, was not where we would live and what we would do, but what we were going to eat. And we were hoping that it would be breakfast so we could have waffles and ham and eggs and that kind of thing. So we went to a Japanese cafe on, on Jackson Street called Jackson Cafe and had our first meal as free people. And, and it was exciting.

AI: It must have felt good.

CN: Yeah, it did. I, and people have said, "Well, weren't you scared?" Well, no I don't think we were. We'd been frightened enough inside. And certainly I knew, we knew it wouldn't be easy because we certainly didn't have any money and didn't have anyplace to live or anything, but, but we made it.

AI: I heard that some people were apprehensive before leaving camp because they had heard about negative reactions. Was that something that you had heard about, too?

CN: Uh-huh, uh-huh. Yeah, and we experienced it, especially on the bus. We were allowed on the bus, but people would get up and go way to the back of the bus or the front. And I got to a point where I would sit up in front. So, and that was not very comfortable. And some of the people would say to us, "Why don't you go back where you came from?" kind of.

<End Segment 30> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.