<Begin Segment 27>

TI: So after that hearing, when they said, "Okay, you could stay in the United States, where did you go next?

KM: We went to my brother-in-law's place in San Leandro. He had a nursery, and he had a Portuguese guy take care of it, and he evacuated to Denver. Then he moved back, opened up the nursery... well, the nursery was running during the war because this guy took it over. He said, "Wow, he took it over all right, but he sure ruined the plants." Profit was good at that time, and you were in business. You had a lot of shortages.

TI: Now, why did you and your father go to San Leandro and not back to Fresno?

KM: We didn't have any property in Fresno to go to.

TI: But you still had maybe your, the goods that were stored...

KM: Yeah, right, uh-huh. But still, if it's in government, stored with government. So we didn't go back, and Dad wanted to open up a shop anyway. And then no place to stay, so we went back to San Leandro. Oh, my mother and... yeah, my mother's sister and brother were in San Leandro, because they closed Tule while we were gone. So they were there, so Dad and I, we went back to San Leandro.

TI: And how about your younger brother? He went to, you thought maybe to Bismarck. What happened to him?

KM: Oh, they closed that camp down and they moved everybody to Santa Fe.

TI: Okay, so he joined you there.

KM: Yeah, uh-huh, the three of us.

TI: Okay, so you all went together. So from San Leandro, how did you go back to Fresno?

KM: We worked, I worked in San Leandro in the nursery for I don't know how long, three or four years. And then my dad came back earlier, and he found the place, so he opened up the store and put all the merchandise that we put in it, showcases. So the store, actually, the store was just, the new store was just like the old store, but different location.

TI: And how about the community? How had the community, when you came back, how had the Fresno community changed?

KM: Oh, actually, I didn't see any changes, really.

TI: So it kind of looked pretty much the same as before the war?

KM: Right, uh-huh, it did, before the war, yeah.

TI: Now, how did the community treat you and your family?

KM: They were glad to see us back. They were glad to see us back opening the store again.

TI: And why were they so glad to see you back?

KM: Same old faces, I guess, and then the merchandise we had.

TI: Now, did you come under any criticism for the path that you and your family took to go to Tule Lake, then to...

KM: No, no criticism at all, yeah.

TI: How about discussions? Did anyone want to talk to you about what happened?

KM: No, not really. Actually, this is the first time that I've been asked to speak about all of this.

TI: No, I appreciate this because, you know, not very many men really took the path that you took.

KM: Oh, I guess not, yeah.

TI: So it's really, I think, important that people hear this.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 2010 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.