<Begin Segment 11>

RP: Now did, when you mentioned that you heard the news about Pearl Harbor, the bombing of Pearl Harbor?

KN: Yeah.

RP: Did you know where that was? Did you have any idea that...

KN: Yeah, we saw so much in the news that we knew it was, it was in Hawaii...

RP: Right.

KN: ...but then we didn't think we'd be put into camp so fast.

RP: Right. Did you, were you aware of what was going on in the world? That Japan and the United States were...

KN: Yeah, yeah, they were at war.

RP: ...close, you know they were, you know...

KN: And so we know nothing good would happen, you know, being us Japanese.

RP: Right. So you started to worry and you were concerned about what was gonna happen to you?

KN: So we just left everything and went into camp. When we came back, I don't know, it was all gone. Somebody... I think our property was mortgaged by Arts and Cook or something. So they took over whatever. So we didn't have anything when we came back.

RP: Really.

KN: Nothing. We start over from scratch. We had to go work for somebody else.

RP: So you still had a mortgage. You hadn't paid the mortgage off entirely?

KN: Yeah, uh-huh, we hadn't... yeah. Uh-huh.

RP: And so somebody took over the farm.

KN: Yeah, yeah.

RP: Who was that again? Did you say...

KN: Arts and Cooks, Arts and Cook, I think they are a real estate agent. He took over everybody's property. 'Cause everybody still had mortgage on it. They had property that wasn't all paid for yet. So this Arts and Cook, he took over everybody's property.

RP: Were you, were you able to store some of your possessions?

KN: I didn't have anything. [Laughs]

RP: Nothing at all? The family didn't have any...

KN: No.

RP: ...furniture or...

KN: No, we didn't have anything like that. We just left everything. We didn't have time to pack, really. You know, a couple a days and then you're going here and that's it. So, you know. We just sold our car to somebody for a hundred fifty bucks or something. We had a 1936 Chevrolet sedan and then one guy that had a garage, he wanted it so we sold it to him. But then other than that you couldn't take anything with you.

RP: What was the feeling like in the communities, Elk Grove and Sacramento, towards the Japanese Americans after the war?

KN: I don't know. They were glad to see us go some of 'em. You'd be surprised you know. Some came to see us off, our neighbors and stuff. But a lot of 'em, just glad to get rid of us. I couldn't believe that they feel that way when we'd been neighbors and friends for years and then they were so glad to see us go. So that's how the feeling was at the time, you know, war.

RP: Now your sister Fusei, or Fusai...

KN: Yeah, she'd dead. Nobody's left. I'm the only one left in the family. Everybody's dead.

RP: Fusai, she contracted tuberculosis and was sent to a sanitarium?

KN: Yeah, yeah, she did. She went to Weimar Sanitarium. She died there.

RP: And where is Weimar?

KN: Up in the north. Where is Weimar?

Off Camera: I think it's near Auburn.

KN: Near Auburn. Past Auburn. Weimar is, is a sanitarium. And my sister went there. She died there.

RP: When did she contract tuberculosis?

KN: I don't know. She worked for the state and then she was filing and... that got her tuberculosis, filing stuff. And she licked her, like that. That's what the doctor said. That's how she contracted it 'cause nobody in the family had tuberculosis. She's the only one that contacted it. They think that's what happened when she was filing at the state and lick her fingers and do that. That's how she got it.

RP: And when did she, when was she sent to Weimar Sanitarium? Do you know? Was it before the war?

KN: Yeah, before the, before we went into camp, yeah.

RP: Shortly before you went into camp?

KN: Yeah, yeah. So she never did go into camp. She was in the sanitarium all the time.

RP: Did you visit her before you left for camp?

KN: No, we couldn't. We were, you know, we couldn't, we couldn't leave our home. We couldn't go anyplace.

RP: You were kind of frozen in...

KN: Yeah, yeah. So we just wrote each other but that's about it. 'Cause we couldn't, we couldn't leave the home. We couldn't travel.

RP: And your oldest sister who got married...

KN: Norma.

RP: Norma.

KN: Yeah, she was already married. She lived in Los Angeles.

RP: Right.

KN: And they voluntarily evacuated to Utah. There were about three families went on a caravan. They all lined up together and they went. They went where, where they weren't evacuated they went... they ended up in, I think, Brigham City, Utah. Honeyville, Utah, or someplace out there. And they got a job in a cannery.

RP: Was there, was there any discussion about having you go too? Your family?

KN: Oh, there were, they were itching to take us, for us to go there too so that we don't have to stay in the camp all the time. They found a place for us but they worked in a fruit cannery and there were plenty of jobs so they sent for us and we went there, and we got a job sorting fruits, cherries, apricot, all that. At least we got a job.

RP: So tell us where you, where did you assemble to go to camp, to go to Fresno?

KN: Just what we can carry. You couldn't take anything, just the clothes you wear, that's about it. We left everything at home 'cause we couldn't take it. You could only take what you can carry. So we left a lot of things at home. All the purses and shoes and stuff, we all left.

RP: And you never saw any of that again?

KN: No. Never saw it again.

RP: And where did you, where did you meet the train?

KN: In Elk Grove... the Southern Pacific Train.

RP: Did somebody drive you to the train station?

KN: Yeah, next door neighbor.

RP: Who was that?

KN: Hakujin neighbor, they took us to the train. And the, I think our neighbor, Japanese neighbor, they haven't gone. We went on a Wednesday. They didn't go 'til Friday. So they took us to the station. But I don't know who took them when we were all gone. They had to go to the station on Friday.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.