<Begin Segment 2>

KL: So that's a pretty immediate change, that phone call and the news that your grandfather had been arrested. Were there other ways that your life changed after the attack that you recall, or how did that... are there other ways, or how did that story play out?

JO: My life didn't change that much. I mean, I just went to school every day, and I went to Maryknoll missionary school, and it was all Japanese. And so I think... I really don't know the timeline, but I think after the Executive Order 9066 was signed, our school was closed, because it was all Japanese, so you can't go to school anymore. Now, I don't know if it was the end of February or sometime in March, but I know that we couldn't go to school anymore.

KL: Did you sense anything different about school, like when you went back that next Monday, was there a different feeling or do you have any recall of that?

JO: No. Everything seemed normal. I think people were, kids were talking about it, but I was not aware, and just went along my usual routine until there was no more school, then I didn't go to school anymore.

KL: How did you learn that you were gonna have to leave home?

JO: Mother, I guess, Mother and Dad. But I really don't... I really don't remember. I mean, I don't really remember what happened there because we never talked about it. I remember, all I remember was we're going to Manzanar. They announced we're leaving April 2nd, and she said that Baachan, my grandmother, and family were leaving on April 1st to go to Manzanar. So, because they wanted to stay together as a family, my mother said because we want to be together as a family, we're going April 2nd.

KL: You may not know the answer to this, 'cause you said you guys never talked about it, but do you have any idea if your parents ever considered just leaving the exclusion zone before the order into the camps? There was that real narrow window...

JO: Yeah. No, I don't think they did, because... I just don't think they did.

KL: Yeah, it sounds like your life was in California.

JO: Yeah, it was in California, relatives were here. We had nowhere to go to, where would we go? We did have a car, my father bought a '41 Dodge or something like that, '41. Yeah, it was '41, because it was new.

KL: What did he do with it?

JO: We had to sell it. I imagine he sold it for a song.

KL: He never told you anything about the buyer or that process?

JO: [Shakes head] But I know he sold it. And he was happy that somebody bought it, because we couldn't store it. He wasn't going to drive it up to Manzanar.

KL: When your folks told you, "We're going to Manzanar on April 2nd," what did that mean to you? What did you think, what was your response?

JO: I didn't know where Manzanar was. I didn't have... I just figure we'll just go with my parents. Very naive. You know, in this day and age, my grandson is seven years old, he's a lot more inquisitive about life in general than I ever was. To give you an example, seven year olds don't, especially girls, don't play with dolls. And I had my dolls that I just loved, and I had to leave.

KL: What happened to them?

JO: Well, they had to be put into storage, 'cause we couldn't carry them. Said, "There's no room for them, you have to leave your toys." So I had to leave all my toys. And I had a playroom full of toys in our house. We had a lot of things to play with.

KL: Where did you store them?

JO: Our next door neighbor owned their house. So we rented ours, but our next door neighbor owned their house, so we put them in boxes and stored them in their basement. But unfortunately, when it came time to retrieve them, when I was... 1946, they were not in very good condition. Or it could have been 1952, but it was a while before we took a look at what was stored, and it was all broken up and dried up. One was a rubber doll, and the rubber all crackled and broke apart, and the other was a plaster doll with a plaster face, and, of course, fine paint job, and that was all crackled, too. So I didn't want to save any of it, it was just too horrible looking, and threw it all away. All of it was thrown away.

KL: Who were the neighbors?

JO: The neighbors were the Ikedas. I don't know the parents' name, but the one I remember, her name is Mutsuko, and her name is now Mutsuko Okada and she lives in Seattle. And so when I went to the conference in Seattle and the convention in Seattle, first of all, the JACL convention a year ago, and this year, the museum conference, I met her and talked to her and she invited me over to her house. Because my friend that I travel with is her in-law. Her husband was the brother-in-law, so she's the sister-in-law.

KL: Were the Ikedas in Manzanar, too?

JO: No, they were in Poston, I believe. Because people, we lived in East L.A., and the people who stayed there eventually had to go to Santa Anita and then to Poston, that whole area of Boyle Heights.

KL: Yeah, I know East L.A. was kind of split up, so how, what was responsible for the difference? Your family's desire to stay together?

JO: Yes. We stayed together and we put our names in, because we had to go anyway, put our names in early, end of March, to go by April 2nd, and I think it was just a few days, maybe five days. Of course, my aunt, who was a doctor, married Dr. James Goto, and they were asked by the health department or somebody to start up the hospital there, and so she went with him. Because she was the one that was more organized, she knew exactly how to set up an office or hospital and what was required. He was the chief. [Laughs]

KL: So you think she... do you know anything about the logistics of that... I don't know if volunteering is quite the right word, but of your kind of enrolling and going early to Manzanar? Was it Masako who did that?

JO: No, my parents had to go and do it at the... I'm sure they had to go and do it themselves.

KL: Do you have any idea -- I know you were young, but do you have any idea where they did that or what it was like?

JO: I have no idea. I have no idea, we never talked about it.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2013 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.