<Begin Segment 24>

MN: So I guess since you were a "yes-yes," you were given a leave clearance to leave Manzanar. When did you leave Manzanar?

KM: I left in, I think March of 1943 to go to Chicago to go either work or go to school, back to school.

MN: Now once you got to Chicago, were you able to go to school immediately?

KM: No, I took a job, and my job was working with... what's that big publishing company that manufactured books, magazines? Anyway, I used to, they have a midnight shift, I think it was about seven something in the evening, until about four in the morning shift, unloading paper, rolls of paper onto a machine that made books and magazines or something. Donnelly's company, something like that?

MN: So this prevented you from going to school? Just your hours working, midnight shift?

KM: Uh-huh.

MN: So how long did you last there?

KM: Oh, probably a couple, three months.

MN: And then from there, what kind of work did you find?

KM: Well, and then I signed up for school, so I had to get a job that would allow me to go to night school and still work during the day. So I think I got a job as, at the Field Museum of Natural History as a mail clerk, like. I sorted out all the mail that came into the company.

MN: And then when you started to go to night school, what did you major in?

KM: Oh, I changed my major at that time to accounting or something that was more conducive to what I thought I'd be able to do.

MN: And what was your social life like in Chicago?

KM: Well, I went with a friend of mine that I met in, at Berkeley in 1940, and then I bumped into him in camp. And he was from Long Beach, and so we became very close in camp. And so he, we decided to go to Chicago at the same time.

MN: So you two hung out together?

KM: Yeah. In fact, he just passed away a few months ago, so we've been friends for about seventy-some-odd years.

MN: So you left Manzanar in 1943 and you are in Chicago going to school and working. What happened to you in 1944?

KM: Well, in 1944, I was working and I had changed jobs from the Field Museum to work as a... I don't know, a woman's dress manufacturer company that, buyer's, assistant to the buyer of various stuff that goes into women's dresses. And so I had that job for maybe about six, seven months while I was going to school. That's what I was doing most of the time. I don't recall any specific changes in my routine.

MN: And then what happened?

KM: Huh?

MN: And then what happened?

KM: Oh, then I went in the army.

MN: You got your draft notice?

KM: Yes. I got drafted, notice to report in December, and finally went to... induction center in February of '45.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.