<Begin Segment 11>

LH: So the time came for the evacuation. How did, how did your parents tell you what was happening, that you had to leave your home?

MS: Actually, they never really told us. We just kinda knew and the kids, older kids would talk about it. And they're the ones that told us that we were -- at least me -- that we're going to be moving. And that we don't know where, but it's gonna be a camp. And so in my mind it was supposed to be like a camp that you would go to for summer camp or something that I heard of 'cause I'd never gone to one. I was too young yet. But the older kids had learned about camps and things like that. And I knew in my mind that I wasn't supposed to ask because of the way my parents were dealing with this. I knew it wasn't a happy thing for them. Everything was... before, I remembered my life as being relatively carefree. Now I knew that I had to be very careful about how I acted with them, not to bother them, not to ask them too many questions because they had things weighing on their mind. So as a youngster, no one really has to tell you some things. You just kind of know that there's something amiss but it'll play itself out.

LH: So as a six-year-old, how did you handle getting prepared for the evacuation and going down to the bus?

MS: Actually, I didn't. All I knew was one day my parents were packing things up. And I figured, well, that's their job to pack things up and get it ready for us. But when it came down to the fact that we were gonna go, she just told me to pick up what I wanted to bring with me and to take that. They didn't expect me to carry packages for them, which was kind of sweet of them.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.