Densho Digital Archive - Kitako Izumizaki Interview (denshovh-ikitako-01-0011)

<Begin Segment 11>

MA: So was there any talk about the community being removed into camps before that actually happened? Did people know that that was coming?

KI: Not exactly, no one knew anything. Even in the, even when they told us to just pack a suitcase and go to the veteran's building, nobody knew from there what was gonna happen. Of course, maybe some of 'em knew about Salinas Assembly Center, but I knew that we were gonna be taken somewhere. And then from there, nobody knew -- at least we didn't. Maybe the top people knew but we didn't know where we were going. That's why I said, well, what are you going to pack when they tell you go pack one suitcase, when they don't tell you where you're going or how long you're gonna be there. I said, "Well, what if it's going to be a real cold place?" But then, of course, people from Watsonville, it's such a mild climate, the clothes, they only had one kind of clothes. But I remember my sister's husband's family, they all said, "Oh, you guys better buy boots, 'cause I think we're gonna be sent to a desert, and there's rattlesnakes." So we all bought cowboy boots. [Laughs] Such unnecessary things, you think, but you don't know. And then, like I said, well, packing clothes was no problem for me 'cause I didn't have much. I says, I had one dress in the wash, one dress for Sunday school, and one dress that I was wearing, I said. And a clodhopper to go to work in, so I said that was so, my suitcase was full of sanitary napkins. I said, "Well, what if there aren't any stores?' I said, "What am I gonna do?" That's what I worried about. And I just brought a dictionary and a book of poems and the Bible, 'cause I said, "Well, I'm a read, but I can't be taking books, so I'll just take the Bible." I said, "With all the 'begats,' it'll keep me busy for years." [Laughs] So that's what I did.

MA: And what did your family do with all your other possessions?

KI: Well, my brother was working for this family, he says, "Oh, they have this barn here so you could bring it there." And we thought, well, the Japanese Association's gonna have a room that you could bring stuff, and he says, "Oh no, bring it there." And they just went through all our stuff, and my mother had Japanese doll in a case, and they broke the glass and the mice got in it, and it was just a mess. And they got tired of, I guess, leaving it at their place, so they finally took it to the -- but it wasn't worth, hardly any worth keeping. But my husband's side of the family, his, they were living there and that guy kept their car and all, and the house, he just locked it up. It was a small house, but everything that they kept locked in there stayed there. It was still there when they came back. So you know, you don't know, if you're unlucky, you're unlucky.

MA: What about the, your parents' farm? I mean, you just kind of had to leave it?

KI: Oh, yeah, everything. You know, you had to build their own house there, we built our own house there and had to leave it, leave the crop, leave it, everything you leave. And nobody wanted our dog, so I had to take it to the pound to have it put to sleep, 'cause they didn't want us to bring dogs. It was pretty bad.