<Begin Segment 6>

KO: So you were allowed to leave Heart Mountain as long as you went east. Even though --

RO: Yes. As long as you didn't come west, you can -- if you wanted to get out, they would let you let you get out.

KO: And even though you didn't have a job.

RO: No.

KO: So why do you think he chose Denver?

RO: Oh, we had friends that lived in Brighton, Colorado. They moved from San Jose to Colorado before, so they didn't have to go to camp. So he had friends that lived in Brighton. Brighton was about twenty miles, twenty-five miles from Denver.

KO: So then when you went to... you stayed in Brighton, not necessarily Denver.

RO: Yeah, we lived in Denver, but our, my dad's friends lived in Brighton.

KO: Oh, okay. So you didn't live with them in the beginning, you lived on your own.

RO: Yeah, we bought a house in Denver, my parents did.

KO: And how was your father able to establish his gardening business in Denver?

RO: Oh, he just went... there was a lot of rich people in Denver who could afford gardeners and he went out there and worked for them.

KO: Was there any prejudice toward Japanese?

RO: No. I didn't feel too much prejudice in Denver, but where we lived was primarily blacks and Mexicans. The grammar school I went to in Denver was ninety-seven percent black.

KO: My goodness. And Mr. McKenna was instrumental in helping your father again?

RO: Yes. He shipped my dad's 1937 Dodge pickup to Denver, and my dad used that for gardening.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2004 Densho and The Japanese American Museum of San Jose. All Rights Reserved.