Densho Digital Archive
Japanese American Museum of San Jose Collection
Title: Mollie Nakasaki Interview
Narrator: Mollie Nakasaki
Interviewer: Jiro Saito
Location: San Jose, California
Date: November 1, 2004
Densho ID: denshovh-nmollie-01-0018

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JS: We're gonna go now to the period when the war ends, now. Some families who left the camp early or, was your family one of those?

MN: No, we stayed 'til the very end. Although my two sisters, they went out early.

JS: Where did they go?

MN: One of them went to Denver, and the other one went to Chicago.

JS: And those are who?

MN: Lori went to Denver, and Anna went to Chicago.

JS: What did they do in those places, Lori in Denver, for example?

MN: Lori, I think she, she, I believe she was working in a laundry, a laundry shop, where they, where they iron sheets and pillowcases for hotels, big hotels. And that's... and Anna went to Chicago, and she worked in a doll-making company, where she made the eyes and the faces for the dolls. I think that's what she did for a while. I don't know what else she did.

JS: So your family left in 1945?

MN: '45, uh-huh.

JS: And they, and where did you, your family go?

MN: We went to Denver, where Anna, where Lori was. We stayed in Denver.

JS: Why didn't you go to, come back to Salinas? Why did you go to Denver?

MN: There was nothing there.

JS: Your store was no longer there.

MN: No, there was no store there, uh-huh.

JS: Now, when you got to -- how did you get to Denver, by the way, from Poston?

MN: We, I, we must have had some money, I think, we took the train.

JS: Did you enjoy the trip?

MN: Yes, uh-huh.

JS: So your sister Lori was, had moved to Denver.

MN: Uh-huh, yes.

JS: And how long did you stay there?

MN: I think no more than four months.

JS: Okay.

MN: During the winter months, October, November, December, January, because it was cold and it was snowing all the time. It was snowing all the time while we were there.

JS: And what did you do there?

MN: We went to school, my sister and I, my sister Betty and I, we went to school.

JS: And what was school like for you?

MN: We went to Manual High. It was predominately Hispanic, so it was, I enjoyed it. It was fun.

JS: Nobody called you names or anything?

MN: No, uh-uh, no.

JS: So you were well-treated?

MN: Uh-huh, yes.

JS: Okay, so did you graduate from there?

MN: No, no, we, no. We just stayed there about four months. And I was a junior, sophomore, I think I was a sophomore. Ninth, ninth grade.

JS: And besides school, did you do anything else there?

MN: No, I didn't. Nothing.

JS: You didn't have a job, part-time job or anything like that?

MN: No, no... I, I went to apply for a job as a live-in, and this other girl and I, we went to apply for the same job, and that was the first time that she was mopping the floor on her hands and knees, and -- [laughs] -- I didn't know how to do that. So she got the job.

JS: Now, you stayed with Lori, but there's how many of you there? Are you all in one house?

MN: Yes, one house, uh-huh. She had a, a rooming house, and there was one, two, three, four, about five or six, six bedrooms. And so we were, we had a room of our own, my sister and I, Betty and I, and my mother and father had a room of their own.

[Interruption]

JS: So how did she come about buying this house?

MN: Well, I think she, like I said, she, her husband was a chick-sexer, and I think it was for an investment, something that they could fall back on in the event that when they get older and then they'd have something to, to have.

JS: Now, this was a rooming house --

MN: Rooming house, uh-huh.

JS: -- so was there any, is there anybody else living there besides your family?

MN: Yes, uh-huh, there were two couples living there, uh-huh. And each one had their own kitchen, so it's a tiny little room where a kitchen and their own bathroom, so I was...

JS: How many of you were in one room?

MN: My mother and father had a room of their own, and then we had a room of our own, but we didn't have any kitchen or any, it's just a, we had to go to my sister's for, to go to the bathroom and take a shower and things like that.

JS: How did you, how did you like living there?

MN: It was nice. It was very cozy, and it was always so warm in there.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2004 Densho and The Japanese American Museum of San Jose. All Rights Reserved.