<Begin Segment 14>

TI: So let's go a little bit back to your family. So it's your mother, father, and you have a brother and sister? Can you tell me the names of your brother and sister?

SK: Oh, my brother's name was Yasuyuki. And...

TI: And how much younger was he than you?

SK: Two years.

TI: Okay, so you're the oldest.

SK: I'm the oldest.

TI: Then your younger brother, two years younger.

SK: Yeah, he passed away years ago. And my sister was called Teruko.

TI: And how much younger was she than you?

SK: Another two years.

TI: Okay, so there's two years apart.

SK: So I'm six years older than she is, maybe a little more.

TI: Six years or four years?

SK: Six years.

TI: Six years, okay.

SK: Oh, let's see now. Every two years, she'd be four years.

TI: Four years, okay. So as a family, when you went to the Fresno Assembly Center, it's your parents and then brother and sister, so there are five of you that go to the assembly center?

SK: No. And my, I told you he had an older, my father had an older brother? Well, his wife, she was in Japan for a little while and came back to Fresno. And she was here, and that's why we went to Gila River rather than to Jerome, Arkansas, where most of the Japanese from Fresno went to. They were evacuated from Fresno Assembly Center to Jerome, Arkansas. And the reason why our family didn't go is that somehow we, he got the doctor, my father got the doctor to claim that the cold weather would be harmful to my aunt.

TI: Okay.

SK: So that's how we, I ended up in Gila.

TI: Okay, so there were six of you then. There was three children, your parents, and then your aunt together. And so when you went to Fresno, describe your living conditions. What was your room like at Fresno?

SK: Oh, we had a very good house. Every Japanese family, I know most of 'em on our block, they all lived in a big home, big house. And a lot of rooms.

TI: So this is at the fairgrounds? No, this is your house in Chinatown?

SK: Yeah.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2010 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.