<Begin Segment 13>

JS: So you were the oldest child who came back to California with your parents?

BK: No, me and my...

JS: Your brother?

BK: Me and my younger sister and (two brothers).

JS: Sister and brother?

BK: Uh-huh.

JS: Okay. And you were only, oh, you were in high school at the time?

BK: Huh?

JS: You, in camp, you were in middle school, junior high school?

BK: Yeah, uh-huh.

JS: And then when you came back...

BK: I was in high school.

JS: You were in high school. And you went to high school... where did you go to high school?

BK: I... when I came out, I went to high school and I moved to San Francisco as a schoolgirl. So my junior year I spent in San Francisco, and I didn't like the school. Or the students, they all looked like teachers. I mean, I didn't know what nylon was. [Laughs] In camp, we just had zoris or bobby socks. And then, so I came back and graduated from Rio Vista high school.

JS: So after camp, your family, your parents, came back to Isleton?

BK: Yeah, because we didn't have anyplace to go. So my brother that was in the service took his furlough and found us a, I guess he heard about Isleton, the canneries were busy and they needed workers. So when we got there, we were the first ones there, so we got a great big four-bedroom regular house. And then the people that came after us, some of 'em were from Isleton, some were from Sacramento, some were from different parts of California, and they all came, but they had to work in the cannery. And like I was still going to school, but then like summer vacation or during holidays, they made you go to work in the cannery. So that was the stipulation that, "You want to live in this house? You work in the cannery." Anybody that can.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.