<Begin Segment 7>

RP: You're a high school student, did you keep up with what was going on in the world as well...

LK: Yes. We took the Oregonian, we faithfully read the Oregonian every morning. We kept up. But when they asked me about what did I think about December 7th, I don't recall that... they asked me if it was a surprise, I don't remember. I don't remember, I remember my dad saying something about Japan is... because my dad read the newspaper, he read the Japanese newspaper, and he read that. My dad was current, very current. My dad was very into current events, too, so they were talking about it. But it didn't really affect us, I don't think. I never thought about it, what would be happening.

RP: How about the next day or the next week?

LK: You know, I don't recall that anything was that different. Like I say, until the FBI came to our house, and all of a sudden, it just seemed like... and then I was the one that had to read all these things that came in the mail or posters that went around to read that we were not allowed to go out at night, you were not allowed to do this. And then it really hit home that we could not go to a basketball game at night, for instance, because we couldn't leave the house after six or eight or whatever it was. And then the FBI came and ransacked our house, and I thought, well, this is really, something is really happening here.

RP: Were you home at that time when they came?

LK: Yes, I was home.

RP: Do you remember... can you kind of lead us through what happened when they came?

LK: When they came, my dad was out working and they told me to get my dad. So I went to get my dad, and while they were, when I was gone to get my dad, they had gone through the house and threw everything off the shelf, opened the drawers, pulled everything out, threw 'em on the floor. And when they left, it was a shambles. See, we were already told beforehand by posters or something that we were not to have... so my parents, I don't know what they did. They didn't really have very much, but my mother had lots of Japanese things. So they looked through everything, but they didn't take my dad away, so evidently everything was okay. But it was sort of a frightening day.

RP: How many FBI men were there?

LK: I think there were two that came. I think it was two.

RP: So you went to get your father and then you both returned back to the house.

LK: Uh-huh, my mother was home.

RP: Your mother was home. And did they question your dad at all?

LK: Yes, they must have, but I don't remember any of the questions. Because I had to be the interpreter, you know, but I don't remember any of the questions. And I don't remember them taking anything with them, so evidently we didn't have anything that they wanted.

RP: Yeah, that's... your memory of things were happening and it's hard to believe, it seems like the walls were moving in closer and closer.

LK: It became serious.

RP: So when you finally learned that you were being excluded from your community, it wasn't a huge surprise, was it?

LK: Well, you know, I don't know. Because I think to the very end, I don't think we... I think they thought somehow it was going to be resolved. My dad did sell his things because they were told... so he did sell his things and he kind of made up his mind. But to the very end he worked on the farm, had the strawberries ready to be harvested, he worked 'til the very end. He didn't just say give up and, well, just let it be then. So somehow he felt that maybe it was going to be resolved, and he was optimistic that nothing was going to happen. But I don't remember what I felt.

RP: Did you have a thought, did you ever think this would happen to you?

LK: Go to the...

RP: Go to the camp?

LK: I don't remember. I don't remember.

RP: Was he able to harvest his strawberry crop?

LK: No, we left it in prime condition, intact for the neighbors, who volunteered to look after our place for us.

RP: How did you prepare for leaving? Did you sell items?

LK: I think my dad sold the truck, and we had a car, and we sold the car, but the stipulation that they would take us to the point where we were supposed to meet the bus. I think we sold some things in the house. I remember my mom putting everything in the back room that she wanted to keep, and then just left the rest. I don't remember her selling very many things.

RP: What do you remember taking with you?

LK: Well, we were told just to take what we could carry, of course, but I think he put our clothes in it, and might have taken a blanket, but we didn't take anything besides, none of our personal things. We each had a small suitcase, my dad had to go buy these little cardboard suitcases, and we each took a suitcase. But I don't have any of my memorabilia from my childhood because it was all left behind. And when we went back, nothing was there.

RP: And your mother left her koto and shamisen?

LK: Yes, yes. She left all her, I remember she had a drawer full of linens, real linens, and her wedding things that she had gotten, we left everything.

RP: Now, did you have, since you were the oldest child, did you have some responsibilities at this particular time that you had to take care of certain things?

LK: Well, I had to do all the interpreting, and I had to read all the things that we had to read. Because my dad... although he could talk, but he didn't understand legalese. And so yeah, I was responsible. And then there were, I had a handicapped sister, and I also had a little brother and sister so that I had to go help with my handicapped sister because my mother had my little sister who was only two, I think. And so I had a lot of family responsibilities.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.