<Begin Segment 19>

MN: How and when did you hear that all Japanese Americans on the West Coast would have to go into camp?

KM: When did I find that out?

MN: When and how did you find that out?

KM: Oh, I don't know if it was word of mouth or what. Somebody must have told us, but we got ready. The people in Glendale, most of 'em went directly from Glendale to Manzanar.

MN: Did you go directly to Manzanar, no assembly center?

KM: No assembly center.

MN: Now how did you feel when you heard that all Japanese Americans, even American-born like yourself, would have to go into a camp?

KM: How did we feel? Shikata ga nai. It was ordered by the government, so be it. So we went.

MN: What did your family do with all the Japanese books and records and photographs?

KM: Well, when we moved, evacuated to Manzanar, my dad had a 1938 Dodge sedan. We jacked it up and put it in the garage, and then whatever we couldn't take with us, we threw it all in the garage and technically locked it up. Fortunately, when we came back, most of it was there, still there.

MN: What happened to your house during the war?

KM: We had it rented. We rented it to some German family, and he kept it up, I guess. So we were able to come back and my folks moved back in.

MN: How did you yourself prepare to pack?

KM: Huh?

MN: How did you prepare to pack to go into camp?

KM: I don't know. I just grabbed whatever I could carry, I guess.

MN: I mean, did you know if you were going into a hot place, a cold place, or what did they tell you to pack?

KM: Well, it was up to you, I think. They didn't tell us, I can't remember them telling us... it's both hot and cold.

MN: Did you know that you were going into a place called Manzanar?

KM: No, we didn't know where we were going.

MN: Do you remember the date or month that you gathered to go into camp?

KM: No, I don't remember exactly... I know it was in 1942, I think it was in March or April probably.

MN: Where did you gather?

KM: Where did we gather? Someplace in Glendale, I forgot. Somebody, I don't know who even took us there.

MN: Do you remember if any of your hakujin friends or teachers came out to see you off?

KM: Say goodbye? I don't recall.

MN: Do you recall any soldiers at the gathering point?

KM: I don't recall that either.

MN: Do you remember getting on a bus?

KM: No, not even getting on the bus. I know I went on a bus, and they we stopped for a pit stop or something like that in the desert, and everybody got out and I see someone who was on the other buses.

MN: How many buses were there?

KM: Huh?

MN: How many buses?

KM: I don't remember.

MN: Four, five?

KM: There must have been at least ten buses.

MN: From all the different areas?

KM: Yeah, because there were some people that were, that I knew from the... the Virgil area that were on another bus. I was surprised that they were on that bus. I thought it was all Glendale people, but there were people from other areas.

MN: Do you know where this pit stop was at? Was it possibly at Mojave?

KM: Probably someplace in the Mojave, yeah.

MN: On this bus, did you have to pull down the shades?

KM: I can't recall them doing that. I know I see, they talk about train rides and stuff like that where they're pulling the shades down, but I can't recall if the bus was...

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.