<Begin Segment 15>

DG: And I'm curious to hear about your belongings that were stored in the room while you were gone, and especially your kimono and your doll.

KN: It's, I donated that to the Sakai School because I'm getting up in years, and they want to borrow it every year for this "Leaving the Island," "Leaving Our Island" program. And I told them that they should find a place for it, because who knows? I'm eighty-six after all. So if they could keep it and the doll is in a case over there, and the kimono is hanging in a glass case, and the corsage that my mother made out of shells is in -- I had it framed for our aunt, and when she passed away I took it back and I donated it to Sakai School.

DG: What was the corsage for?

KN: She just made it, she made a lot of things. In fact, Dad made a tansu, chest of drawers, before Bruce was born, first grandchild, you know. So oh, he got this lumber and everything and he made a tansu. And Bruce took it home to California and he still has it.

DG: Where was that made?

KN: Minidoka, yes. And my mother crocheted a poodle and it's so cute, it's all in a frame and Bruce has that. She said that was for Bruce.

DG: So is that what your parents did in camp? They did a lot of crafts?

KN: Yes, yes, my mother did a lot, and Dad did lots of woodwork. He loved it.

DG: Let me see if there's anything else. And what, do you remember what it was like for your younger sisters to return? They went back into the schools here, when you, after the war.

KN: Yeah, my youngest sister went back to school here. However, my other sisters graduated from Manzanar, I think, and then they went back to the Midwest, Minnesota, so they were there. My youngest sister, my youngest sister and the next one, I think, one above her, they were the only ones that came back with the folks, I believe. And then after my brother was discharged from the hospital, he returned, then he went to Seattle U. and he did farming, and the folks farmed with him, and everything went okay.

DG: What was your brother in the hospital for?

KN: Well, he had a spot on his lung.

DG: Oh, that, okay.

KN: Yeah, uh-huh.

DG: So somewhat, your family was separated after the war then, because you had sisters in the Midwest?

KN: Oh, yeah, uh-huh.

DG: How did your parents feel about that?

KN: No, they didn't feel bad or anything. They just thought that was a good opportunity, you know. They wanted to go out and see the world and do something different.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.