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JN: So when the exclusion order that said you were, you had to leave the island or go east when that Exclusion Order No. 1 came through, how did you hear about it, how did you feel? Did you know ahead of time?

MN: I think they had a meeting at the Japanese Hall and they talked about it. And they said one day that we'll have to go, and they told us to be very careful and watch what we say and do. And then they had curfew, so we had, my cousin living on the High School Road, between Finch and High School Road, and their family, father was taken, too, and so she was left alone, and they had one son, but he was going to school in Seattle, or working, I forgot which it was. So we wanted to kind of look after, see how the mother was doing, but we had a curfew. So by, I think by six o'clock or something, we were all supposed to be in, we want to go look and see, but we couldn't even get over to see her.

JN: So when your family were, had to prepare to leave, how was that like, and how was, what did you, what are your memories about preparing to leave?

MN: My sister Elsie took over and they, I remember she'd go into meetings after meetings. And we had to sell things, and get all those things... we had to find someone to look after the farm. Then we had those, Filipino man that worked for us, he took over the farm. So I know that she had to go to meeting after meeting, I remember. Just... one time, they said oh, maybe we didn't have to go, just the Issei, first generation. Then another time, they'll come back and say, "No, we'll have to go, we'll have to leave." And they, at that time, they didn't know where we were going. But about a week later or something, I think they found out we're supposed to go to Manzanar.

JN: How was your mother during this time?

MN: Mom, she was very strong, 'cause she had to look after four of us girls. And she was very, you know, strong, and said that, "Well, if we have to go, we have to go, we had to get ready." And she was strong, so kept us... she was in charge. And before we left, the family wanted to, we were all assigned certain kind of work on the farm. I was doing a lot of baking, and so the family wanted to have a, eat a chocolate cake before we left. [Laughs] And so we baked, I baked a nice, lovely chocolate cake, it was beautiful. I put the icing on and when we cut into it, it was so salty we couldn't even eat it. I made a mistake, you know, because we had to put all the things away and get ready, so the, I used salt instead of, of sugar. I could still remember someone, maybe, no one could eat it, so thought, well, maybe the chickens might finish it. Took it in the, to chickens, and no, they couldn't even eat it. [Laughs] So it was very bad. But that, I could never forget that, that beautiful chocolate cake. [Laughs] At least we got to laugh.

JN: So you were the baker for your family?

MN: Uh-huh. We all had certain duties to do, so... and I loved to bake. I used to have lots of fun making cakes. [Laughs] And they used to come out so nice, and this day, I can't bake cake anymore. [Laughs] Even cake mix don't work for me.

JN: So when you were preparing to leave, did you have any friends, any hakujin friends, that... did, tell me about your friends that you had then.

MN: Oh, we were very good friends with Alliance church minister and his wife and the son and son-in-law. Got to know them through youth group, and so they were very kind to us. They took over the nice things that we had in the house, they took it over, and we told them to go ahead and use it. Mom was just, finally had her beautiful china dinner set, and I think maybe we used it once, yes, for Thanksgiving. And then we had to evacuate, so we told them, "No, go ahead and use it, everything," and they said they were so glad to store everything for us, so nicer things we took it over to the minister's home. And then we left everything 'cause the Filipino was going to take care of the place, so were just fine.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.