Densho Digital Archive - Nori Masuda Interview (denshovh-mnori-01-0015)

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TI: Back at the church, what else did you have to do to get it ready? Because pretty soon you had to leave, how did you close the church up? What did you have to do to get the church ready?

NM: Information, spread that information --

TI: Well, after that, then pretty soon you had to leave.

NM: Huh?

TI: Pretty soon people had to leave Fresno? So the church, what happened to the church when people left?

NM: We just had to get all that ashes out.

TI: Right.

NM: You can't leave it in there, so that's why we built that vault.

TI: Right.

NM: Where we shipped it there, and heavy, oh god, those things are heavy. And then we moved it -- it's still there, but now we got a bigger vault there, so it's all in there. The other one is sort of a stockroom. They're still using that other building, too.

TI: And then when you left the church, did you lock up the church?

NM: Big altar, they put a board there. But I heard they broke that all up. But the altar, they didn't, they left it. They didn't touch it. 'Cause I didn't come back right away from Japan. I stayed there another seven years, see. So during that time, I think nothing was broken.

TI: How about your family's, the store? What happened to that?

NM: Oh, we had to sell a lot of things. But nobody buys it now. You know, there's a fan, you pay twenty-five dollars, five dollars, maybe they want... we had a popcorn machine, we paid three hundred something, maybe about eighty, ninety dollars we sold that.

TI: And who did you sell it to? Who bought, who bought the popcorn machine?

NM: Oh, somebody come by, they're looking for some kinds of things like that. Popcorn machine was very popular at that time. And then we had to sell it for about eighty, ninety dollars. Cost about thirty-four hundred dollars. So they bought that. And then, see, I was in already. I volunteered to go in first. Anyway, my folks, I had another younger brother, he took care of that, they packed up everything, and then when I told 'em, "I'm gonna volunteer and I'm gonna go in first, so give me all the big futon," you know. 'Cause we got futon, there were seven, six kids. My brother was in the army already. My older brother was a Japanese soldier, we were all, only one, my older brother was in the army, so there were six of us, seven of us. So we had to take a lot of futon. So I took all that big bundle, they said, "Only what you can carry, suitcase." So I put another extra wrapping. [Laughs] I got three of 'em in there. No camera, no radio. No, radio was okay, yeah. But if there was a shortwave, they said you gotta cut that shortwave section out. So I got my small radio in camp, so I got the music. So I went in first, I volunteered. Because I had a life insurance I want to pay up. And if I go in there, I got no money, so I got to work, how much they pay? Eight dollar, ten dollar, and twelve dollar. Skilled labor, twelve dollar, professional, twelve dollar -- no, sixteen, sixteen dollar. And then twelve dollar, eight dollar. I got paid eight dollar a month. A month, now, one month work, eight dollar. For that six months, that pays my insurance. So I said, "I'll take it." [Laughs] That's what I did. I didn't want to lose my insurance. So at least I can get that.