Densho Digital Archive - Kitako Izumizaki Interview (denshovh-ikitako-01-0020)

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MA: How did people, especially whites in Watsonville, react to you returning, the Japanese Americans returning?

KI: [Laughs] Well, like I say, when I returned, you know, I thought, "Well, I'll just go say hi to my old art teacher and Dean of Girls here." And so I walked in there and opened the door and said, "Hi," and she just looked at me and said, "Why did you come back?" is what she said. "Why did you come back?" So I thought, uh-oh, so I just shut the door and walked home. And I thought, "Gee, if she feels like that, what would all the other people feel?" So we had a pretty hard time. Go grocery shopping and they just ignore you, you know, and then like, like my mother-in-law and us, we had nothing, so we had to start from scratch and buy everything you can think of. So here I, I said, "Well, let's go to this story over here," and I filled I don't know how many carts full of stuff, and they just, just ignore you. I said, "God, gee, why don't they check us out?" And then I went, I said, "Oh my gosh, let's go home." So my mother said, "What's the matter, what's the matter?" I said, "That sign was so big I couldn't see it." It was an enormous sign that said, "No Japs." It was, you know, under the, along the counter, and I just didn't see it. I could see it all the other places, but I didn't, I said, "Oh, the sign was so large I couldn't see it." So then we came back home and then there's an Italian guy, and he knew my mother-in-law, so went in there. And he had a sales clerk there, a real anti-Japanese, and she would, she wouldn't wait on us on purpose. So one day I got real mad, and I said, "Gee whiz, she's not treating your customers very well," and after that, she started to get better. So we gave him the business, you know. But it was pretty hard.

MA: And you said your husband had some trouble, too, I mean as a veteran.

KI: Oh, yeah. They wouldn't sell him gas, but he was pretty stubborn. He said, "You know, I've been in the army, just come back from Europe," and all that, "Left a brother in France," and stuff. And finally he got it, but it was tough. I mean, but once the ice is broken, you just keep, 'cause we didn't do anything to antagonize it even though we didn't like it. But we were thankful, that's why we're very thankful for the people that were real good to us, like Dr. Marshall, you know. Just about every Japanese went to him because he was real good to everybody, his wife would go and buy milk and stuff if the store wouldn't sell it. But yeah, now... now, gee, everything's pretty good. Somebody else's turn to get treated rotten, I think that's a shame.