<Begin Segment 15>

TI: So talk about the weeks after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and what did your family do during that time period? Because at some point, you found out that you were gonna have to leave Fresno.

KM: Yeah.

TI: So what did you with the business?

KM: The business, well, of course, we had to sell out, so we had to reduce everything and sell everything. And people would come in and they'd look, or a lot of 'em bought because of the price. It was cheaper than wholesale. And actually, we got rid of a lot of old stock, and whatever, we kept what we stored. So it wasn't scary, it wasn't scary at all. We thought we'd be firebombed or robbed or anything like that, nothing happened. Fresno, when it calmed down, it was really... it's because of the integration of all the races, that's why.

TI: And so who, where did you store some of your things? You said you stored...

KM: We stored it at Kerry Nakagawa's grandmother's restaurant on E Street.

TI: I see, okay.

JS: Matsunozushi.

KM: Huh?

JS: Matsunozushi.

KM: Matsunozushi, yeah.

TI: And that's the one by the Buddhist church?

KM: Yeah, by the Buddhist church, right.

TI: Okay. So you stored it there, and then what happened to the building itself? You just kind of walked away from the lease, I guess?

KM: Oh, our building where we were? Yeah, walked away, because, yeah, we had to because of the bank. We were there how many years? 1915 to '41, geez.

TI: Yeah, you just have to give it up.

KM: That's a long time, yeah.

TI: We talked about it earlier, so nothing, it sounded like nothing really bad happened to your family. Do you recall any, maybe, acts of kindness from a non-Japanese during this time period?

KM: No, not really, just the neighbors. They even, yeah, they even wondered why we had to go. But other than that, no.

TI: Yeah, because your mother had these friends who were non-Japanese, your white friends, do you recall any of them trying to help her of the family?

KM: No, not really. They kind of left us alone, yeah. Yeah, thinking about the neighborhood, and no, actually, nothing happened really. Maybe somebody, maybe the neighbors, couple neighbors over, the Diel family, they're the ones, daughter there, that she was real friendly with, maybe she came over. I didn't hear anything about that either myself.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2010 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.