<Begin Segment 3>

SY: So do you remember, though, when the war broke out, when Pearl Harbor was bombed? Is that a memory that you have?

KS: Not at all. The, this is a situation that I am, I'm well aware of, that as kids of that age we were very ignorant of anything that's going on in our surroundings. It was, our world was within a few feet of us. What we saw, we knew. What we didn't see, we didn't know absolutely nothing about. It sounds rather naive to anticipate anything or know anything, and why we were going to the orphanage and what was going on. There was a comment. We were in a class at Costa Mesa, I remember only one day, as we looked up and saw these B-38s flying over. I have no recollection the relationship of that versus what was going on, it's just an event. But we attended that class maybe a few days, and that's about all I can remember.

SY: And you don't remember your parents being concerned or talking?

KS: No.

SY: So what precipitated your mother's breakdown was your father leaving, then? Do you feel that that was the...

KS: My assumption at the time... when my father disappeared, the following morning she was in a panic to go someplace, get someplace. She had me sit behind the steering wheel of the car that we did have and gave me the car keys, ignition keys, and, "Get the car started so we can get going." [Laughs]

SY: And you were how old?

KS: I was maybe six years old. Five years old, six years old, something like that. And then she's starting the car with the, so I realize now that the gear shift was in first gear, which means when you start the car the engine just, I mean the car kept creeping forward. And I think that's about the time that the friends from that house came over and says, "We better take care of the situation here, before you kill yourselves."

SY: And your whole family, your brother and your sister and you and your mother, were all in the car when that happened?

KS: I assume so. You know, I don't know. I don't remember. I know I was in the car, I know it was starting, I know it was creeping forward, and my mother was sitting there in a panic of some sort. But I don't know what happened, whether the other two kids were there or not.

SY: So from your own perspective, though, was it, were you feeling panicky at that time?

KS: Here again, it's one of those situations. I wasn't panicked in a sense of panic, I just didn't know what was going on. She says do this, and so I do it.

SY: Right.

KS: Ignorant. [Laughs]

SY: No, no. Maybe naive.

KS: Naive is part of it.

SY: Yeah.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.