<Begin Segment 24>

RP: Just a couple more questions, Kaz. Did you, did you have any military experiences?

KY: No. No, I was 4-F. I was too skinny. I didn't weigh enough. Probably weighed every bit of a hundred and ten pounds. [Laughs] So when I went from camp I had to go to L.A. to get a physical. I got turned down, 4-F. So I didn't go to the army. I was a skinny guy, you know. Barely a hundred and ten pounds if I weighed that much.

RP: Do you remember what year you went down to L.A.? Was that...

KY: Well, see, my birthday is in March.

RP: It would have been after you turned eighteen.

KY: So it must have been somewhere around March. Yeah.

RP: How did you get down there? Did you, did somebody escort you down there or...

KY: Let's see, how in the hell did I go there? There must have been a bus or something that took me from camp to L.A. Just as there was a bus from camp to Reno where the people that wanted to go east. They'd end up in Reno and then take a train from there to go east. So there must have been a bus or something that went from camp to Los Angeles. I forgot exactly how I got there.

RP: And after you just spent a short time, you got your physical and then you came right back up?

KY: Yeah, I came back to camp again. Uh-huh.

RP: Did your, did your brother serve in the military?

KY: Uh-huh, my brother did. Yeah, he was in Camp Ord, O-R-D, Camp Ord, I think that was where he was. Fort, Fort Ord or whatever it was. He was stationed there. And you know he, that's what, that was the end of his military career. He played tennis almost every day. He didn't get, he didn't get to basic training I don't think. Or maybe that was basic training right there.

RP: He never went overseas?

KY: No, he didn't go. But he was thinking of volunteering for another couple more years. And he wrote to me from Fort Ord when I was living in Chicago. He says, "Do you think I should volunteer a couple more years so I could go to Japan?" Because most of the guys that went into, when the war was over already... because he graduated in 1945. I wrote back to him. I says, "Don't you dare volunteer another two more years. It's better to get your education first." So I says, "Come on home and then get your basic training in a college of your liking." So he came home and he went to... it's a famous school, art school that he went to. He's a commercial artist. And so that's what he did. He didn't go back to the army anymore. And I think I think he made the right move. Don't you think so? Instead of just, just want to go back to army just so he could go visit Japan or somethin' like that. It might have been fun, but I thought his education was more important. And so that's what he did.

RP: Now, that was something that was always stressed to all the kids, wasn't it? Education was very important. Wasn't that one of the values that your parents...

KY: Not especially. I thought it was more important. That's what, that's what made him change his mind about volunteering anymore. I thought, I thought it was more important for him to do that than, than re-enlisting again.

RP: What about your parents, they, did they come back from Chicago before you did?

KY: No, I did.

RP: And what... did your parents come back to California at some point?

KY: Yeah, after my... my mother worked at this hotel. What's the name of that place? This hotel... what was the name of it? I should know what I'm talkin' about because I worked in that hotel.

RP: This was in Chicago?

KY: No. Here.

RP: Oh, okay.

KY: Yeah. And, but their headquarters was located in Chicago. And my mother worked there as a cook. She... my mother was more aggressive than, than the other Japanese mothers that lived in Chicago. She was, she was more aggressive and she could speak English better than they could. And so that made a difference for her to be the head cook. Because she was, she wasn't more educated but she knew how to speak English better than the other ladies. And so they elevated her position and so she made more money I guess than they did. And she retired from that hotel and once she retired, I was already here. And when I was living in the Crenshaw area. And so they decided that they wanted to leave Chicago too because it was cold and everything. And so they moved to near to where I lived in the Crenshaw area. And my father died soon afterwards. He got ill and he died. But my mother was happy to come back to California again.

RP: Do you have any additional questions?

KY: And she lived to be ninety-six.

RP: Now did she, did she ever become a naturalized citizen?

KY: No. She didn't. She should have. But, she was happy the way she was doing. She loved to go to Vegas. Yeah, she was living in this apartment where my daughter's husband, my daughter's husband's aunt used to own this apartment on the north side of town. And I asked, I asked her if she has a room vacant for my mother to stay there. They did and what I did was I helped paint the apartment completely inside and that swayed them, his sister to rent, rent the apartment for my mother. So I did 'em a favor and they returned the favor by renting one of the apartments to my mother. Yeah. Hers was the nicest apartment of that whole building. It was on the second floor and it oversees right down the yard and she liked it there. But after all it was upstairs. She had to climb this stairway. And so one day, it was when, when my brother's second boy, they had... my brother had two sons. And the younger one was about to get married and so I told my mother, "Let's go visit Chicago for the wedding. And then you could stay there longer if you want to." And she said, "Okay, let's do that." So we went to Chicago and I came before she did. And later on she decided to come to California and she moved real close to where I lived. We had rented an apartment for her before she came. And she finally came and moved to California that way. But she loved to go to Vegas. She loved to go to Vegas. She wouldn't tell me. Sometimes she'd sneak off with her friend and then, and then they knew that there was a bus that takes them to Vegas. So she would go over... then I would find out that she went to Vegas. She never told me anything about it. Or I find out that she's not home and oh, my suspicions were Vegas. So oh, I bet she went to Vegas. So, I knew when the bus was coming back and I went to where the bus stopped in downtown. Sure enough, there's my mother. [Laughs] She loved to go to Vegas. She only played the nickel machine or whatever it is. But she had a grand time. She loved to go there.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.