<Begin Segment 8>

KL: Let's back up a little bit. Where did you live in Glendale?

MN: Colorado Boulevard. 1601 Colorado Boulevard in Glendale was our store, first. But when war broke out we had another store in Los Angeles. We sold the one in Glendale and moved to Wall Street in Los Angeles.

KL: Were you still living with your parents-in-law?

MN: No, no, no. After, only, less than one year. After we bought a store in Glendale we moved out, and my father-in-law, mother-in-law kept, stayed in the same store until war broke out.

KL: I see. You have a daughter who was born in the end of 1941. Would you tell us a little bit about what it was like to be pregnant and what your hopes for your child were? What did you expect?

MN: Well, she was born November 26. In those days we stayed in hospital ten days after the childbirth, so she was ten days old, I was ready to come home, and the radio -- no television then -- radio said Japan attacked the Pearl Harbor and war started, and I got so scared. So I said, I told my husband, "I don't want to go home. I want to stay in a hospital with other Japanese people." So I stayed four more days in hospital, after my daughter was born.

KL: This might be kind of a silly question, but why were you scared?

MN: I don't know. I was just scared to come home, getting out of the hospital. So I stayed there fourteen days. And finally when my son was born in the camp, when my son was, how many days old, war stopped.

KL: Wow.

MN: So I was kind of, ready to get out the hospital again when my son was born, so I stayed in the hospital fourteen days again. So we stayed in the camp until 1945, October.

KL: Were you surprised that Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor?

MN: Yes, I was surprised. They had a little trouble each other, America and Japan, but I didn't think it was going to be a war. I guess it, attacking the Pearl Harbor surprised everybody.

KL: A lot of people. Some people said they had never heard of Pearl Harbor and they didn't know. Were you, did people's behavior change toward you? Your neighbors or people on the bus or...

MN: After the war broke out?

KL: Yeah.

MN: No, not too much. I didn't go out too much on the bus or anything. But I remember went to, I went to, by a shoe store, they didn't wait on me. They just, I didn't know what it's all about, I just sat there and wait, wait. People come in, customer comes after me, they've got to wait and they bought the shoes. But seems like, that was, nothing changed, though.

KL: That was after the war started, that you were in the store?

MN: Uh-huh. And before I bought, we bought this house, we were going to buy a bigger house with a double garage and, bigger house in Horton, and real estate said okay and so much, and the day came finally, finally my husband have to pay down payment on it. And the first time he met the owner, owner of the house, said, looked at him and said, "No, I don't want no business with Japanese." So we couldn't buy the house.

KL: That was in 1949?

MN: Yes. No, nineteen... we came out of the camp 1945, but yeah, we didn't have enough money, so saved enough down payment, so 1949 we were going to buy another house. So he was driving around and a man was building this house, so he stopped by, my husband, asking, "Are you going to sell this house or something?" His name was James Morrison, Mr. Morrison. He said no, he's building for, that time he was a carpenter, so he's making this home for his retirement. After he retire, he was going to come and live in this house. But he said, "If you want a house and you'll buy, I could sell this one. After I finish it you can move in." So we moved in.

KL: So he had no problems with you.

MN: No, no problem. He felt bad because we couldn't buy the other house. So he said, "Don't worry, I will sell you this house."

KL: When you were in the hospital after you delivered your daughter, did the nurses or the doctors change to you, after Japan's attack?

MN: Oh no, my daughter was born in a Japanese hospital, all Japanese doctor, Japanese nurse. And my son was in the camp; that's all Japanese doctor and Japanese nurse, so no problem.

KL: What is your daughter's name?

MN: Jane Michiko.

KL: Wow. That is really remarkable that your kids are kind of bookends to the, to the war.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2014 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.