<Begin Segment 9>

RP: So you were in Santa Anita for about six months probably?

MK: Yes, from April to beginning of October.

RP: And then the idea was that you should be along with San Francisco people so you got sent to Topaz.

MK: Yes. So, we met up with a lot of our friends again. Right.

RP: And just like Santa Anita, you were, you ended up living near the hospital because your sister...

MK: Because of my sister.

RP: ...worked there.

MK: So we lived near the hospital in Newpa, in Topaz.

RP: And was she an RN at that point or was she...

MK: She was just short of having her RN. So she was training. She had gone through all the training that UC Hospital had for their nursing staff. At UC, they went to UC Berkeley for two years and spent three years living in the dormitory at, on Parnasus, where UC Hospital is, UC San Francisco. And so then they worked in all the different fields. They also had to work night shifts. They had to work, like they were regular nurses and everything. So...

RP: She was a pretty valuable asset to...

MK: She was.

RP: ... a situation like that.

MK: And then when she left camp, because I was in the Midwest, she went to work for Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago. She didn't have her RN, but she knew what she was doing.

RP: Right. Uh-huh. You mentioned this group of twelve people.

MK: Yeah.

RP: These were friends from San Francisco?

MK: No, actually most of them I knew... I met them in camp. And we participated in the same activities, like the choir and things like this. And I guess, I think personality wise we must have all been more or less the same. There wasn't anybody that was extra rowdy or anything like this. We were kind of a quiet group to begin with. But almost all of the whole group went off to college.

RP: From Topaz?

MK: From Topaz. Yeah. And then of course then the fellows got drafted into the army. But they all went back to college when they got through. Yeah.

RP: Do you keep in touch with any of these folks anymore?

MK: Quite a few of them.

RP: Do you get together occasionally?

MK: And quite a few... well, no, but we all made it a point to go to every Topaz reunion. And we used to say gee, maybe we'd better keep having reunions so we see each other. And I still keep in touch with quite a few of 'em. And of course some of 'em have passed away.

RP: So, being in a group with that kind of a coping mechanism for...

MK: It was the first time I had been in a group of all Japanese people. And going to Santa Anita was kind of a shock because we had never been in a group of, where it was all people of Japanese ancestry. And in a way I think it broadened my horizons there because I was put in situations that I had never been in before. So, whereas if you lived in Japantown you ran around with your friends and everything else like this. Like Koji had his friends. And where we lived we were kind of scattered so it was just these group picnics and things like that where we would see everybody all at once at the same time.

RP: Once in a while too.

MK: Yeah, right.

[Interruption]

RP: This is tape two of a continuing interview with Michiko, and Michiko we were just discussing about how you kind of had to watch your step if you grew up in Japantown in San Francisco. But you were isolated from that community.

MK: Yeah.

RP: And...

MK: Because our friend, the families that were around us, we didn't sit around and gossip so to speak.

RP: So when you got to Topaz and you were amongst all Japanese Americans, did you feel you, like you had to watch your step again?

MK: No, you know, even our church was not like that. There were quite a few people from Japantown who went to the church but I don't remember. 'Course you, we always had our parents who always say you don't do things to shame us. That was our culture. So, but you know, the... when we came out of camp we lived in the Richmond District near Golden Gate Park. We bought a house there eventually. And so when you go to work you make a lot of friends from other backgrounds and everything. And after we moved and moved down to L.A.... we were exposed to more of a Caucasian style of living, so to speak. We moved to Huntington Beach because it was a little more diversified than other areas. And we wanted our children to... not to, well, to be tolerant of everybody, so to speak. And seeing as how my husband was in the education field, we were more conscientious of that I think.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.