Densho Digital Archive - Kitako Izumizaki Interview (denshovh-ikitako-01-0016)

<Begin Segment 16>

MA: So you mentioned you were only in camp for six months.

KI: That first, uh-huh, but then I did return.

MA: Right. You had met your husband in, it was in Poston?

KI: No, he was, we knew each other from before, 'cause he was living across the street, yeah, and he was already in the army. Because he was, he had a very, I don't know if it's a high or low draft number, so he knew he would have to leave within a few months. And he decided that he'll volunteer and go early because that year, '42, in the spring, it just rained and rained and rained. And we just, he knew that he wouldn't be able to get any work done anyway, so he decided, "Well, if I go in now, next spring early I'll be home," 'cause, you know, one year. So he did go, but then on December, when he thought he was going to come home in a few more months, then there was Pearl Harbor.

MA: So he was in the army before Pearl Harbor?

KI: Yeah. And so one fellow was from Washington, Puyallup, Washington, and he was already twenty-five. And so he thought, oh, he's gonna get to go home, too. I think they did send him home but they called him right back after Pearl Harbor.

MA: And so when did you get married?

KI: January 7th in '43.

MA: In '43, okay. So, okay, so he was stationed... where was he stationed?

KI: Well, Fort Ord. You know, they get, they get, they go to Ford Ord first and then they get to San Francisco, and then they went to Camp Roberts. And then he was -- at the time, after the war, he was way down south, L.A., around L.A., yeah Los Angeles something.

MA: But he was in, you mentioned he was in Texas when...

KI: Oh, yes, after, uh-huh, after, you know, they decided to take all the guns away from the Nisei, because, you know, nobody trusted them or something. And for a while, he was sent to Wyoming to guard a tunnel and stuff like that. And then they were sent to, a whole bunch of them, local boys, were sent to Fort Bliss, Texas, and he, he was there for a while, so he says, "It looks like I'm gonna be here for a while so why don't you come out here and we'll just get married so you can get out of camp?" and so that's what we did.

MA: Okay, so you got married in Texas?

KI: Yeah, in, I mean, in New Mexico. Because Las Cruces was only a bus ride away from El Paso, which was where Fort Bliss was.

MA: Why did you have to go to Las Cruces?

KI: Because Texas had a waiting period, blood tests or something, but Las Cruces didn't. So since it was a short bus ride, he says, "Oh, let's just go over there so we don't have to fuss with that," and so that's what we did.

MA: How were you able to leave camp? Did you go through some process?

KI: I applied for a, they said, how do you apply to get out, and they said, "You get a couple of people that's not your relative to write you, write a letter, recommendation," this and that. And so it was very easy.