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HM: I always have to admire your parents because even though he went through all that, I remember his singing and just being a very upbeat person. And so did he talk at all about his ordeal or his, or the things that he went through when he was...

JK: No, we didn't talk too much about that during the war or before we left the island. Well, Mother was kind of sad, but... she only had three small children at the evacuation time, and I wasn't too much of a help for her, but we somehow survived that and went to... what is it, Manzanar, and a year later, we moved up to Hunt, Idaho. They called it Minidoka. The fact that we moved up was we couldn't, well, I wouldn't say we got along, but the younger people, like my age, eighteen, nineteen, twenty years old, they kind of hard to get along with the California people, especially Terminal Island people. So I think the elderly in Manzanar from Bainbridge Island, they request the War Department to move us to Hunt, Idaho. Because they had the one block saved. Not saved, but left over, so we came up to Hunt, Idaho, Minidoka camp. And then we were given Block 44, and all the Bainbridge Islander were in Block 44.

HM: What was your... were you old enough to have to have the answer the "no-no" "yes-yes" questions when the men were required to answer those questions?

JK: What kind of question?

HM: About your loyalty to the United States. There were two questions, and some men would answer, "no" and "no" to these particular questions, so they were known as the "no-no" boys.

JK: When we were in Manzanar, there was a question between, "Are you loyal to the United States," and, "are you willing to serve in the military?" But I just answered "yes" and "no." Because I can't leave my mother alone, because Father wasn't there to take care. Well, when you're in the camp, you don't have to take care of nobody. The government took care of us, but still, there's nobody to rely on at that time. So I wasn't at home too long, but I was in Twin Falls working for Hoop Construction to repair the highways. Hoop Construction, they get a contract from the state government to go around and fix the state highways and other U.S. highways and things like that.

HM: So this was before your mother and your younger brother and sisters were out of camp, you left before them? Did you leave camp before the rest of your family?

JK: Well, we didn't have too much problems going to Manzanar because that's where everybody else is going. So I kind of remember that we got there in California in April Fool's Day or something like that. That's about the main thing that I remember. And then we got on the bus at the L.A. station and went to Manzanar.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.