<Begin Segment 19>

TI: And how long was it, or how soon did you reconnect with your father in Amache? Did that happen right away? Was he there when you got there, or was there some time that you had to wait?

KM: No, we waited for him and he came.

TI: So when he came to Amache, you had not seen him for now a couple of years.

KM: No, he came to Jerome.

TI: Oh, Jerome, and then came with you. But when you, when you re-met your father, how had he changed over that time?

KM: Well, he was, of course, gray, and he didn't look too good. And he didn't want to talk about the torture that he went through. He said he can't say anything, they were pretty bad.

TI: And what was his, sort of... although he didn't talk about it, how would you say he was changed? Was there a different way that he was after he came back?

KM: Yeah. He didn't talk, talk too much. It was just briefly. It was a short time in Jerome, and then when we went to Amache, he went in to a different, different block. He went to 12-E and we were in 7-A with the Walnut Grove people, I was. He was different block, we were in different block.

TI: Was he with your mother?

KM: Yes, just with my mother and the sisters that aren't married. Two of 'em were, one of 'em went to Tule Lake, and the two stayed with my mother and father.

TI: And so who was living in your apartment? It was you, your...

KM: My daughters.

TI: Your two daughters?

KM: My two daughters.

TI: And just the three of you then?

KM: Yes. And my father and mother, they were in 12 and I was in 7. 7-H.

TI: Yeah, that seems...

KM: 12-E, they were in 12-E.

TI: Did that make it harder for you to be farther away from your mother, your parents?

KM: Yes, it was. Because we couldn't do anything, they just put us in the camp there.

TI: And so why do you think they had you guys so far apart? Why not put you closer together so they could help you as a new mother?

KM: I don't know, they just assigned us a block. But later on, we got, we were together later on. We asked for it.

TI: Okay, so when they were able to get you closer together, they moved you closer.

KM: Yes, we were together.

TI: Okay. But again, going back to your father, even at Amache, did he seem like a changed man than how you knew him before the war? Were there any changes, or did he become pretty much the same after a while?

KM: Yeah, same.

TI: And did you start noticing problems with his stomach or anything at that point with the ulcers? Did you notice any illness?

KM: Well, he never complained, so we didn't know until we came out of camp that he had ulcers.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2009 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.