<Begin Segment 7>

KL: So you waited. How did you learn that you would be leaving your home also, that you would go join your father? Do you remember how you learned about that?

MS: No, I don't think so. I don't remember that either.

KL: Do you remember getting ready to go? How did you prepare to leave Peru?

MS: Gosh, that I don't remember either.

KL: You were little.

MS: Yeah, I didn't pay attention, I guess. I have no idea. I don't know how they did that either, the other families. Kind of funny, but I'm getting old, I guess.

KL: Well, also it's hard, so sometimes you...

MS: It was very hard. Most of them were lonesome without Father.

KL: Did your whole family, all of your brothers and your sister and you and your mom all travel together to Crystal City?

MS: Oh, yes.

KL: Do you remember that trip at all?

MS: No.

KL: No?

MS: No. Just kind of scared, I guess, that's all.

KL: Do you remember anything special? You had to leave your dog, was there anything that you took that was important to you?

MS: No, we lost a lot of things, papers and pictures, and we couldn't get the whole thing in one suitcase, you know, it was kind of hard, because you got the limit and all of that.

KL: What was the limit?

MS: So I don't know what they did with the leftovers. Maybe they throw it away, I have no idea.

KL: Did you see anything that you left again?

MS: No, I don't think so. We couldn't get too many things anyway. There was a lot of things we had to leave. Most of us have to leave, you have to. It was kind of sad, but what can you do? 'Cause they checked also, I'm pretty sure, the suitcase inside.

KL: Did you each have one suitcase?

MS: I don't remember how we did it, I'm pretty sure we have some, but I remember on the way back after we moved from the camp, we're supposed to bring just one suitcase. And when we arrived in Japan, somebody... when was it? January, and it was snowing, it was so cold, we'd never seen snow in South America. And so somebody, when we were waiting at the station, train station, somebody stole my second brother's, Antonio's, suitcase, the whole thing. The whole thing. See, they knew we were Japanese each other, but they knew we were coming from different countries, and they took the whole thing, so he didn't have nothing to wear and everything. So that was kind of bad. And then we had to go see my father's oldest brother, he was a farmer. We never farmed, and my feet was getting so cold, it was swollen and everything, and you have to walk. And it's all rocks, you know, the country is no, that road is bad, you have to walk, it's hilly. And it took, I don't know how many hours, and finally we arrived at my uncle's place. It wasn't too easy. No, not enough food, and the weather's so cold, snow all over. We had a bad time. So in a way, it's a good experience because we learned how not to... oh, how do you say? You can't throw out any food. What do you say that word?

KL: To be thrifty or frugal?

MS: Yeah, you have to save everything. So do the [inaudible] volunteer work, and I see everything over there. We don't throw away food in Japan those days, you have to eat everything. Now I remember after we moved back to the city in Japan, we have a little room house and I remember when we used to cook the rice, you have to put some, I think it was sweet potatoes, those green leaves, wash it off and put it with the rice to make more food, because you don't have enough food. So we learned a lot in Japan. You don't throw away any food, that's what I do even now.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2012 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.