<Begin Segment 19>
RP: Fred, when did you leave the camp?
FN: Huh?
RP: When did you leave Manzanar?
FN: I don't remember. That was about a year or two before they closed.
RP: And where did you go?
FN: I went to Salt Lake. Stayed with my cousin.
RP: Oh, George.
FN: George, yeah. And I got a job in a fruit and vegetable place. An Italian guy had it. And I got a, I worked a job and he didn't know whether I knew anything or not so he'd say, "Hey Fred, here's an apron go, go to work." And he, as I say, I had the experience of fruit and vegetable so heck I had that thing in good shape. And he looked and he says, "Oh." I was hired right there and then.
RP: And so why did you choose to relocate out of Manzanar?
FN: Why?
RP: Yeah.
FN: To get out. To get freedom. Well, I didn't mind the camp that much but outside was better.
RP: Is there, let's see... so you worked in the, was it a market?
FN: Yeah, uh-huh.
RP: Okay. And how long did you work there for?
FN: 'Til the war ended. Then I quit and came back. My folks were already relocated to Los Angeles.
RP: And where, where in Los Angeles?
FN: Oh they, they were in different places.
RP: Were all the kids with them too?
FN: No. They all went their way here and there.
RP: Uh-huh. So other, other brothers and sisters also relocated out of Manzanar?
FN: Yeah. They were with my folks for a while but they can only afford a small place so they were cramped also. And then I really don't remember exactly what happened to everybody. Oh, some got married and the others... I really don't know, but the family dispersed various ways.
RP: And did you get, you got involved again with the, with the flower business?
FN: Yeah. So I mean, jobs were hard, still hard to... go to various places, they look at you and they shake their head, nothing doing. So the guy that owns San Lorenzo, I met him at my cousin George's place. They used to play poker every so often and I used to beat him. So he knew me. So I went to get a job and boy, he gave me a job right away and, like I say, I stayed there for, 'til I retired.
<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.