<Begin Segment 13>

RP: Now, you were involved with the glee club for a while at Manzanar.

SK: Mr. Frizzell. I wanted to attend more of that, but I just couldn't. I loved that. It was really nice. But I loved that singing. Matter of fact, he's told me I had one of the high pitched voice, way up there. He said, "Oh, you're up so many..." I don't know what it was, but he told me. But I was too busy with this and that, so I didn't keep it up. Yeah, I used to love singing. It was nice. That was the only enjoyment I think I really had up there.

RP: Is the singing.

SK: It was nice. And then there were movies and all that, but I had no time for all that, movies. I know my sister did. She used to love to go.

RP: Dances?

SK: She did. I don't know how to dance, and to this day, I never did dance. No time for that. I had my mother, my grandpa, and I had a sister who was handicapped, see, so I was just kept busy.

RP: Between the hospital and taking care of the family.

SK: Yeah. My grandpa, he was something else, but yeah, he was a nice grandpa. He took care of my grandmother. They, Dr. Thompson in Burbank, he was awfully nice to us and he put them in his, in the basement, for them to stay. And somehow the army came in, you see, told the doctor that there was enemy aliens here, so he comes, the army sends a doctor, so they come with how many army, with the guns and everything, into the basement, and then they took them away. They took 'em to this one place somewhere in, Pasadena somewhere. I don't know where they took 'em, but then I heard that that's where they landed up in, one of these rest homes or whatever. And my grandpa used to go, he was there too, but he says they put Grandma -- 'cause Grandma was dying -- and he said they had Grandma out in the hallway with no water, so he used to go get, gave her water. And nurses said, "No, you can't go there 'cause this is a women's territory. You have to go back." Grandpa didn't care. He just went, ran and gave her some water and all that. Yeah, Grandma, she was being a diabetic and all that. When they brought her, on the last day when they brought her to camp -- Father Lavery was the one that brought her into camp.

RP: Father Lavery did? He went down and picked her up?

SK: Yeah, he, in some way he, yeah, and he brought my grandmother out to where she died, to Manzanar.

RP: And did she die in the room or at the hospital?

SK: Yes, she died in the room in Manzanar. They just brought her in and during the night, that's when she passed on. In the meantime, Nurse Akita was, rolled her over, and great big bedsores like this, all over her back and her hind end. The nurse says, "Oh my god, look at this. Look at this." So they made this great big, like a big donut thing, yeah, so she'd be comfortable. And she opened her eyes once and then that was it. Then she just, just petered out.

RP: Did you have a funeral for her in the camp?

SK: Yes, yes, we did. We did.

RP: Was she cremated?

SK: She was cremated, and her ashes, I have her, we have her buried over here in Evergreen Cemetery. That's where my grandpa and grandma and my uncle... it's one of these old cemeteries. That's been there for years, I think.

RP: Did you ever, you said that you really hated to be in Manzanar. Did you consider leaving the camp, relocating or...

SK: During that time?

RP: During that time.

SK: No, during that time I says, "Where will I go?" Well, we had a place to go back at the ranch, yeah, and that was it.

RP: Just waited.

SK: I just waited, that's all. So we were there for three years. I was happy to get out, I tell you. Yeah, I was happy to get out. Before that, my uncle and one of the helpers, the three of us came out first to look at the place. And as I told you, there were weeds up yea high [lifts arm over head], so we were trying to clean up the place so we can come home and get the place kind of straightened out, which we did. I think we were out for maybe three days or so.

RP: That was you and your uncle and Mr. --

SK: And we had a helper.

RP: Mr. Nagami?

SK: Yeah, that's right, Mr. Nagami. How did you, did I say that before? It's written down?

RP: You spilled the beans.

SK: [Laughs] Mr. Nagami, yeah.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.