<Begin Segment 14>

TI: And the other thing you did was you brought one of the minister's wives to San Francisco?

NM: Yeah.

TI: And so you brought her to San Francisco to see her husband.

NM: Their husband, I still don't know where they were, yeah. But I know one Tanaka family was in Fresno. And I saw him in jail, Fresno.

TI: Right. No, you told me that, but then you also said how you drove someone to San Francisco?

NM: Yeah, yeah. There was some, central San Francisco, but they didn't know. That's all they knew up there, that you can go see them, then they will come back. Then after that, they didn't know where they were. Then later on, they said they were in... what was it? Some Texas camp, anyway. They don't mention those camp at all, yeah. It was a different camp. I think some were in Dakota, too. Yeah. So I don't know exactly where, but I know I took them to San Francisco, and we went to the, some international deal, place, where the immigration was. We went someplace around there, and then they met.

TI: So can you, yeah, describe that. I'm curious what the station... first, how did you get permission to go? Because didn't you have the five mile rule?

NM: Yeah. That's right. But they let us go there. And then they saw them, and then they came back.

TI: So why did they choose you to drive to San Francisco?

NM: Nobody else will go. Everybody's all busy. I didn't want to drive that much, I'm not a driver. [Laughs] So, but you know, you have kids and all that, so I said, "I'll go," then I took 'em out there, then we came back.

TI: And who did you take to San Francisco? Who did you drive?

NM: I did the driving.

TI: No, but who did you go with?

NM: Huh?

TI: Who did you go with? Who was in the car with you?

NM: Oh, that lady, the family.

TI: And what was their name?

NM: Reverend's wife. There was one from the outside, they were in Fresno, see. And he was doing the Fresno no nani, so we had to... then came back. And that's all. They don't give, tell you nothing.

TI: Now, did you go inside with the reverend's wife? Did you go inside?

NM: I went... no, I wasn't able to see how they met. They took 'em in, and then they met. I don't know where I was.

TI: So when you came back to Fresno, did you, did you talk with the wife? Did she tell you anything?

NM: No, no.

TI: She didn't say anything.

NM: God, I forgot what that name was, even. But if I check [inaudible], I could find out.

TI: Okay, no, that's okay. It's a good story.

NM: They were pretty strict about places. They won't tell you nothing. You know, what do you call that? Gun like that, any kind of gun, butcher knife, swords, turned it in to... even cameras, you had to turn it in. Gee, my brother had Leica and all that, camera, I had to check it in. But we got it back, though. Yeah.

TI: Oh, even the Leica camera, you got that back? That's good.

NM: Yeah, number and all that. Leica was a good camera, and geez, I wondered what's gonna happen? We can't take it in, so we had to... and then afterwards they said, "We're gonna send you your camera," so we got it sent, and it came to us.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2010 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.