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RP: Now, you said that after Pearl Harbor your father's, because of restrictions perhaps, traveling restrictions or curfews, that your father was unable to continue his job with the produce business.

MY: Yes, because it was owned by an alien, and they were not allowed to conduct or have businesses. And so the produce company was closed, or either, I don't know if my father, maybe the whole... I don't know how it worked, but all I know is he and my mother discussing it and he didn't have a job, no income coming in, and so he decided he would have another small produce company, maybe he had enough money to do that. So, but it had to be in the name of a citizen. It couldn't be in his name because he was an alien, and so my mother, having been born in Riverside, that would be alright. But couldn't find her birth certificate; I don't even know if she ever had one at that time she was born in Riverside. And so they had to get a birth certificate. Now, I heard all of this, they were discussing it. And so they had to go to Riverside and wherever you go to get your birth certificate, and she had to attest that she, yes, was born there, and she brought a witness along, and her witness was a sister. And so she got her birth certificate and came back. And I wanted to know who went with her and it was Auntie Dorothy, and Auntie Dorothy's her younger sister, and right away I chimed in, "Well, Auntie Dorothy wasn't there when you were born 'cause she's younger than you." They just looked me and just said, didn't say anything, so I knew that I was not supposed to question that. And so he used that birth certificate to open up a business in my mother's name, and he sold asparagus.

RP: He sold asparagus?

MY: Uh-huh.

RP: And who was his most popular customer?

MY: The United States Army. They bought all of his produce, the asparagus. That was his best customer. That's really ironic.

RP: So he was kind of, he was sort of a middle man that you would purchase asparagus and, and then retail it.

MY: Yes. But another reason why I think he was able to conduct business, because he was bilingual and bi-literate. A lot of the produce companies had owners, perhaps, who were very limited in their ability to speak English, and maybe, I don't know, but my father was able to conduct that business and he thought it was very ironic. And he was making just as much money as before the war had started. [Laughs] But towards the end he had to give it up because we had to sell the house, and the house was in my mother's name, and then sell the car and all of our furniture, and pack up what little furniture that we had and put it in storage 'cause we couldn't take it with us.

RP: Now, roughly how much time do you recall having to do all that?

MY: Maybe a month. I remember going to school and telling my teacher that I was leaving, and I remember giving her a gift, a Japanese doll. And she didn't want to accept it, and I just looked at her, "I don't want to give it to you either, but I have no place to keep it." [Laughs] "I like the doll too, but I want you to have it. I don't want to just throw it away." Because if I didn't give it to someone that I cared about, it was literally going to be thrown away because there was very limited amount of storage space that my father had in my uncle's garage. And a doll was not considered important at that time. We stored, I think dishes, some pots and pans, and no furniture. We sold most of our furniture. I think my, the daybed that we made into our beds for my brother and myself, I think we sold that for seventy-five cents. I remember that I was very unhappy about that. But the people that bought it said, "Well, we'll let you lose it, use it until the day you leave." So the day we left they came to pick it up. [Laughs] And my father sold his car.

RP: Was it a new car?

MY: Fairly new. It was a Dodge, gray Dodge.

RP: Do you know who he sold it to?

MY: No, I don't.

RP: How about the house? You said you sold the house.

MY: They sold it, and I know that after the war I went to the Hall of Records and I researched, they allowed just anyone that had a reason to go down there, to ascertain that we did own the house before the war, because at one time we had to prove that we owned property because I think my father got some money back for it, 'cause he had, it was a distress sale.

RP: Right. It was a, it was an effort to partially compensate.

MY: Yeah, I think they got less than a thousand dollars for the house, the furniture, just everything.

RP: So you did put in a claim for...

MY: Yes, he did. I helped him do that. Yeah, went down... their, and their, had the address and that we had been the owners, my mother was the owner, had been the owner. Because all of the papers like that, my father didn't keep or maybe it got lost.

RP: You talked about your uncle being picked up by the FBI and interned in Santa Fe. Were there any visits from the FBI to question your father?

MY: Not that I'm aware of. They were just interested in my uncle. 'Cause if they came to our house... I don't think they came to our house. They were just interested in my uncle, and once they took him they didn't return back, not that I'm aware of.

RP: Did your father have any community ties in terms of organizations?

MY: No, no. They left him alone.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.