<Begin Segment 14>

JS: So sold the business, and then you went to the Fresno assembly center, and then do you remember going from the Fresno assembly center to Jerome? Do you remember that trip?

KM: Trip was on a train. Vaguely.

JS: Vaguely.

KM: I had my second child there, in Amache.

JS: Oh, in Amache. So you had your first child in...

KM: In Madera.

JS: Oh, Madera.

KM: She was three years old when we left.

JS: Oh, okay. So let's go back. So you married, who did you marry?

KM: George Morimoto.

JS: And was George from Madera?

KM: No, he was from Turlock.

JS: From Turlock.

KM: Go-between. We found a baishakunin.

JS: Baishakunin. So what year were you and George married?

KM: 1939.

JS: 1939. And then when did you, when was your first child born?

KM: 1940.

JS: And was that a girl or a boy?

KM: Girl.

JS: And her name?

KM: Phyllis.

JS: So Phyllis was a couple years old when you then went to...

KM: Three years old when we went to the camp.

JS: When you went to camp. So then, so you had a young toddler with you when you went to camp. And then your second child...

KM: Was born in Amache. Well, we relocated to Chicago. My husband found a... he went out to work, many men went out of camp, and he went to Chicago and he worked for a brake, car factory, brake factory. So he called us and we went to Chicago.

JS: So you and your two children.

KM: One children.

JS: One child.

KM: Because we went from Jerome. Chicago was awful. Lot of bedbugs.

JS: [Laughs] That's the second time I've heard about bedbugs in Chicago.

KM: Terrible bedbugs. Nighttime, under the mattress, they're all there. That's what I remember about Chicago, bedbugs.

JS: How long were you in Chicago?

KM: Well, duration of the war, because we went back to help my mother and father back. But I remember from, I don't remember going to Sacramento...

JS: From Chicago?

KM: I remember going from Amache. So I must have gone to Amache.

JS: To join your parents.

KM: Uh-huh, to help them.

JS: And then you left from there to Sacramento.

KM: Yes.

JS: I see. So were you ever in camp in Amache, or just your parents were in Amache?

KM: No, I was in there.

JS: Oh. So first you're in Jerome, then you went to Chicago, and then you rejoined them in Amache for a short time?

KM: I was there for a long time. So I think my husband, I don't know when I went to Chicago, because I was teaching shorthand and typing in Arkansas, and they wanted a shorthand teacher in Amache, that's why we went. So that's why I met Louie and they were there. I was in the same block as Louie and the Walnut Grove people.

JS: The Matsuokas.

KM: The next barracks. The parents, I knew the parents more than the boys. And then next door was Grace, she used to be Noyoshi, she lived in Walnut Grove, and she married Akahoshi. But I never, I just met her once after the war, but she was right next door, same door. And Louie Watanabe's father and mother were on the same block, they were the cooks for our block.

JS: And so you taught shorthand, so you were teaching when you were in camp. And what was your mother doing while she was in camp?

KM: Nothing. She didn't do... she didn't work at all.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2009 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.