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LH: So what did you personally do, you know, in that time between Pearl Harbor and actually being evacuated to Puyallup? What was your life like?

FF: Well, yeah, that was interesting. We just bought a new car at the time -- a 1941 Plymouth Cascade, green sedan -- and I never got to ride it. I'm so mad 'cause I was -- I always wanted to. But since we bought it so late in the game and that, and when the war broke out, you had to sell it quickly or you're gonna lose it. So either leave it, you have to abandon it and so you almost have to pay, you only get about a third out of a brand new car. And that part I was real resentful 'cause I always said, "We got a family car," you know, I felt that was so great. And, but, so family-wise, it was, well, tough for us just getting ready. I think when we were told to take our belongings and the first thing I picked is my mitts and my ball, and maybe my underwear and stuff like that, but not knowing what you could bring but it's only what you could carry. And I thought, I couldn't believe that, so the things that we only could bring, we brought which I'm sure were just clothes and some personal stuff that everybody had, but you had to carry it. And the things we stored, well, we never got back, because the place we stored it in Seattle, you know, it was all stolen after we came back from camp.

And I didn't realize the impact of what it does to the parents, because when they find there's not even that left, not even a bedspring or the personal stuff that they thought they left behind is all gone. So you kind of wonder to this day, where is all that stuff, you know? Whether they threw it away, or junkyard, or whatever. And it's sad because I feel sensitive enough that I knew there was some artifacts that Mom and Dad had that they couldn't bring. But I, all in all, though, I think my folks were fantastically strong to cope with this. 'Cause I think I would have cracked up if I had to deal with what they did. And to be separated, to be alone, to not know the future. Being from another country, supposedly as an Issei. And for us, Dad and Mom had no intention of going back to Japan. I think that the thing that they were looking forward to just making sure that everybody survives. And so they finally -- right prior to the war -- a lot of the sisters and brothers took off for the east, Chicago mainly. So out of the nine, I'd say there was about four that took off to the east... which is a big percentage. Oh, then, yeah, about four. Actually five. Some went to Minnesota, too. Anyway, it was... it just separated the family and you kind of wonder what's going to happen. But eventually when your roots are in Seattle there's a tendency to feel that you gotta come back to your roots... and most of them have, I think there's only... one's in Las Vegas now and one's in Chicago. But the rest of us, four of us are here and the rest passed away, but...

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.