<Begin Segment 11>

JS: Now, so your, your family eventually left Salinas before the actual evacuation took place.

MN: Yes.

JS: So you left before that time.

MN: Uh-huh, yes, uh-huh.

JS: Exactly when was that? When did your family leave Salinas?

MN: Let me think now. Could have been January or February.

JS: Of 1942.

MN: Had to be about -- '42 -- it has to be about February because I remember moving four times in that, in May we were, had to go, we were, had to go to camp, in May.

JS: Okay. So where did you go to from Salinas?

MN: From Salinas, we went -- I, I think we went to a small little town in central Cal called Yettem. I think the population --

JS: Could you spell that?

MN: Y-E-T-T-E-M.

JS: Okay.

MN: I think it was a population of twenty.

JS: And why did you, your family go there?

MN: I, I think they wanted to be near my uncles, and I think the closest, the only house available was that house. That's what I think, I really don't know why we went to Yettem. [Laughs]

JS: And how, how large was this house?

MN: One room.

JS: And this, so there was --

MN: One...

JS: How many of you?

MN: There was probably Anna and Yo, Lori, Bill, my mother and father and I, seven of us.

JS: And all in that one room?

MN: Yes, uh-huh.

JS: And then how long did you stay there?

MN: Well, I, I don't think we, we didn't stay there too long, because from Yettem we went to Visalia, and then we stayed at Visalia at least a month. And then from Visalia, then we moved to Reedley, then we stayed with my uncle. Now, that's another story. [Laughs]

JS: Okay, now what about that?

MN: Because my uncle had about six or seven children, and then we all stormed in, and we all had to stay with them, because we knew that we had to go to camp. So, so all seven of us went, so there must have been about fourteen, fifteen of us, uh-huh.

JS: Now, when you went to Yettem to Visalia, where did you live in Visalia? How big a house...

MN: It was one of those -- it was a camp. They call it J.D. Martin's Camp. And then we had, the Mr. Martin was the owner, and then he had a farm. And so they had to go -- I think it was picking tomatoes. So my family all went to pick tomatoes, but my sister, my younger sister and my brother and I, we had to stay home and cook for the family, so we didn't have to --

JS: Now, what was that like?

MN: [Laughs] Utter chaos. Good thing my brother cooked a little because --

JS: This is your brother --

MN: Yeah, Bill.

JS: Bill, okay.

MN: He's just above me, he's two years older than me, and he was the one that, that made rice and got the okazu, and made food for the family.

JS: Was this something new for you, though?

MN: Of course. Oh, of course. I had never cooked in my life. I don't think I ever even fried an egg. [Laughs] Almost eleven years old. Isn't that... sometimes I think, "Oh, my gosh."

JS: So your family, besides your brothers, your sister and yourself who stayed home and did the cooking and cleaned the house and all that, were working on farms to make a living, right?

MN: Yes, uh-huh.

JS: And when you moved to Reedley they did the same thing?

MN: Yes -- no, no, we didn't have... no, we were, we just packed up, and then we were just waiting for our orders.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2004 Densho and The Japanese American Museum of San Jose. All Rights Reserved.