Densho Digital Archive - Kay Shimada Interview (denshovh-skay

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DG: But then when they sent you the draft notice, you would kind of ignore it, move on.

KS: Well, first, first, yeah, we used to... [Laughs] I wouldn't say ignore it, but more or less like we'd go to Idaho and get away from it. Then we'd have to, law says we have to send in the change of address, so we'd send it in and soon they sent me another notice in Idaho, so we went back to camp again. Then I sent in another order, change of address, and then they caught up with me, finally caught up with me, so they, instead of telling me to, what you call, they sent me, told me to go directly to my physical. I had to go to Fort Douglas and get my physical.

DG: So were you feeling ambivalent, like part of me really doesn't want to do this because... or what were you thinking or feeling?

KS: Well, I was, it didn't matter to me because I was eighteen, I was an American citizen, I didn't have too much worry. I knew we would be called one, one of these days we were gonna be called to serve anyway. So we just took it as is, and when they sent me a notice, well, I would do it. I kind of evaded it for a couple of times, by going, changing my address back and forth. But then, that kind of, I think, helped me, because if, when I finished my basic and I was halfway across the ocean, war ended in Europe. Now, supposing I didn't go through all that and I have to, they would've caught me anyway, earlier, three months earlier maybe, then I would've been gone maybe. I would've been in the 442nd, I suppose, in the field artillery part, 552nd they called it. I would've been there, I suppose. But you never know. That's fate. Yeah, we're just lucky, that's all.

DG: So when, so you said that one of your brothers got a special release to bring your parents back.

KS: My oldest brother, my oldest brother, through the Red Cross, American Red Cross. I guess my folks, they appealed to the Red Cross to have him out of the military and take care of the family.

DG: Were they, were they sickly?

KS: No. No, they weren't sickly. They were, I think my father, I don't know how old he was. He was, must've been about sixty years old, I suppose, and I guess that was enough.

JS: So your oldest brother, when was he drafted?

KS: He got drafted, him and I, we went the same time.

JS: Same time.

KS: Yeah, both of us went the same time. Same day, Fort Douglas, Utah. Yeah, we were, he was working in Utah and I was working in Idaho, then when we got our notice we went back to Utah. My parents were in that camp in Utah, Topaz, Utah, so we went back there. Then finally when I sent change of address he did the same thing, so they caught us both.

JS: So your family moved from Tule Lake to Topaz.

KS: That's right.

JS: I see.

KS: See, they had to either stay in Tule Lake or move, so we told 'em to go to Topaz instead, get away from Tule Lake 'cause it had a bad rep there. So that's what they did. They moved to Topaz.

DG: And did your sisters go with them?

KS: My sisters, they were married already. One was married before the war, and the other married in camp, so they went somewhere else. I don't know where they went. All I know is they went back to Walnut Grove. The family came from Walnut Grove, so they went back to Walnut Grove. Then my folks, I don't know why they went to West Sacramento, but they knew one farmer, one person that had a farm there, and he was looking for someone to take care of the farm for them, so lucky my parents just happened to be there. And they were neighbors before the war, so he called and I guess, one way or the other, and then we started farming there, my folks did.

DG: Were you still in the service?

KS: I was still in the service, so all I knew was they got out of camp and they moved to West Sacramento, or Walnut Grove first. Then my brother got a, the folks appealed to the Red Cross, I guess, being that he was the oldest son, head of the family, so they got him out of the service to relocate the parents. So that's why he got out of the service and came to Walnut Grove, and then stayed there for maybe a couple of months, then went to West Sacramento. They heard that there was a farmer that wanted some tenant to farm there and they had a small house there.