<Begin Segment 8>

MN: I'm gonna get into the war years, okay? Do you remember what you were doing on Sunday, December 7, 1941?

AK: That was on a Sunday, I think, but then I was gardening then.

MN: How did you hear about Pearl Harbor?

AK: All on the radio, and everybody starts talking about it.

MN: On Monday, when you went to your gardening route, did any of your customers tell you not to come back?

AK: No, I don't think none of 'em did.

MN: Later on, the government put out a travel restriction. Did that affect your gardening route?

AK: No.

MN: How did you feel when you heard you had to go into camp?

AK: I didn't know what I was, I didn't know what's gonna happen, so I didn't know what to feel.

MN: Did you ever think about moving out of the military zone and going to Colorado or somewhere else?

AK: [Shakes head] Later on I found out that I had dependents, so I didn't have to go to the service.

MN: Now, before you went into camp, did you try to talk to the government official to try to not go into camp?

AK: No. Well, I was happy to go in, I think.

MN: Did anyone you know go into Manzanar early and write to you?

AK: No, I don't remember.

MN: So you didn't have a friend that went into Manzanar and wrote back to you and said it's not too bad?

AK: Gee, somebody must've, but I don't remember that.

MN: How did you prepare to go into camp?

AK: I was still gardening, so I just worked either half a day or nighttime, and that's how I was able to feed the rest of my family.

MN: Now, you have to go into camp, what did you do with your plants?

AK: I don't know what happened to it. It was an empty lot next to our home. I built a little small greenhouse. Didn't even ask the owner, but I built it anyway. [Laughs] Then I probably just left it there.

MN: What did you do with your car?

AK: I was gardening and there was a, gee, what nationality was he? [To KK] Do you remember?

KK: When you were living at Mr. Tanos's house?

AK: Tanos, yeah, Tanos. She understood my predicament 'cause she went through that other war, so she let me keep my car in her garage, and it was there all the time, three years or so.

TI: Martha, can we repeat that because of the plane?

MN: Okay. I'm gonna ask you that question again, 'cause the airplane was too loud. So what did you do with your car?

AK: Well, there was one family that was willing to take care of it in the garage. And they kept it real nice, and when I got out and started the car I didn't have to do anything. The car started, and get, start working again.

MN: So when you came back the car was still there.

AK: Yeah.

MN: What did you do with all your mother's musical instruments, like the koto and the shamisen?

AK: We, the Japanese school, they said that they'll take care of it. So shamisen and things like that were stored over there. It was still there when we got back.

MN: It was still there when you got back? It didn't get stolen?

AK: No, not mine.

KK: No, you got it stolen.

AK: What?

KK: The shamisen and everything. Yeah. It wasn't there, you said.

AK: Maybe the one... you sure?

KK: You didn't find your shamisen.

AK: Oh, yeah, that's right. Some other, some other Japanese family who got out before me, I think they got it, and I don't know whether I got it back or not. I don't remember that. They were able to leave early. Everybody didn't go out at the same time.

MN: Okay.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.