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LP: What do you remember about the news of Pearl Harbor, or how was that...

MM: I don't remember much at all, I don't know.

LP: Do you remember anyone telling you about it?

MM: Not really. All I know is we had to move, that's about it. And my parents were young, they were probably in their late twenties or early thirties, so they really didn't have much, they were just starting. And I was seven when the war broke out. So it really didn't, we didn't have our home, we were renting, so I'm sure they didn't have that much in goods, either. So they probably didn't lose as much as a lot of other people did. But I think they stored a lot of whatever they had in the basement of somebody's house, and nothing was there afterwards.

LP: What do you... the emotional psychological impact of being a kid and even though your parents were sort of starting out, you had friends, I mean, do you recall that part of it?

MM: No, I don't really remember that much.

LP: So what was the name of the place again that you...

MM: Fowler.

LP: Fowler. So did you go there by car or...

MM: We probably went by car, I'm not sure. We lived in a house with all the relatives, I think, aunt, uncle, daughter, a son, I mean, we were all squeezed in there. I remember they had a bath, they had an ofuro in the back, that I remember. And they had cactus in the front yard. But I don't really remember how long we stayed there, either. It couldn't have been much more than two or three months, then before you know it we were gone to Gila. So there were a lot of people in Gila from central Cal, from Parlier, Selma, Reedley, all of those towns. So I made friends with them, and I still keep in touch with some.

LP: The family that you met up with, which side of your...

MM: My mother's side. It was my mother's aunt and uncle. And my grandmother lived in San Francisco, but she stayed, she didn't move with us. And so she went to Heart Mountain, and so she would send me things from Heart Mountain, and so I knew a little bit about Heart Mountain, but not that much.

LP: Do you know why she stayed?

MM: She had friends. She was a pretty independent woman.

LP: And in Fowler was... I mentioned this when I was talking with Richard, someone I interviewed yesterday whose family was in San Mateo, he remembers walking to the buses and people sort of peering out from their windows and being upset that people didn't come to with the family well. He remembered seeing some of the posters on telephone poles. Do you remember any of that?

MM: No, I don't remember any of that. All I just remember is when we went to Gila, that's the only camp that had white barracks, that was really amazing. And they told us that you have to watch for gila monsters, yeah. [Laughs]

LP: Did that look like... I'm just thinking, what was the gila monster?

MM: I don't know, I never saw one, but they said watch out for gila monsters and snakes, I remember that. And I think we have a coal, I think we had kerosene heaters. And anyway, most of the time it was hot. So unusual camp, because it had white barracks. I don't know if it was to reflect the heat, I don't know.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2014 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.