<Begin Segment 30>

KL: Well, what about the rest of you who were still in Topaz? Can you describe the departure from Topaz?

MS: It was just... it was towards the end that the boys were taken, so it didn't change things too much. Mickie and Hattie, we knew that everybody was leaving camp when we were supposed to leave, and there's a couple in Hillsborough that our sister Mari used to work for before the war as a baby nurse. She found them live-in jobs in Hillsborough, for a couple of Hillsborough families, and they called them schoolgirls at that time, so you live in with them and you help with chores around the house and all that. And so they came out with our brother Akira. She also found him a job in Hillsborough, and then I guess he was kind of like a handyman chauffeur type for another Hillsborough family. So he came out with the two sisters, so that left Tsuki and me with our parents.

And we did stay 'til the very, we were the last to leave. The only one who was there to see us off was Sam Sato, because he had come back, and he waved us off at the gate, because he was leaving to go back east a little later. But yeah, we did basically close the gates and got on that train. And it was kind of interesting because there was a troop train next to us, and Tsuki was the one that was always attracting all the guys. Here comes a sailor and then George, there was a Japanese guy who was coming home from the army. And then the marine, so there were these three guys that were vying for her attention all the time. And finally the marine won out, and he got to sit with her for most of the trip. But there was a lady that was sitting on the other side that was further up, and she had this funny little hat on. And she would glare at us, she'd turn around and glare at us, and this marine would start making fun of her, saying, "Look she's got a chicken on her head," and he started clucking at her and everything, and she'd turn around and glare at us some more.

Our father, of course, he really missed his drinks, although Mom did make him some raisin wine in camp. But he asked me to get him something, a soda to drink, so I went up to the stand to get him something, and they had Dr. Pepper, so I got the Dr. Pepper. Well, the marine saw me, and he comes up behind me and he waves at the attendant that he was going to take care of it. So they pour him, pour the Dr. Pepper. And I didn't know what he was doing, but he had a flask in his sock, and he took it out and he spiked the Dr. Pepper. And then he gave it to me and said, "Okay, give it to your dad." So I take it to my dad, and my dad takes a sip, and his eyes light up. And he takes another sip, you know. He's in heaven. So he was really happy. Well, that afternoon, later in the afternoon, he tells me to go get him another Dr. Pepper. The marine is gone, and I didn't know, you know, what he had done. So here I go and get him another Dr. Pepper, and I catch hell because I got him the wrong drink. "You got the wrong thing," he tells me. [Laughs] Yeah, that was kind of, makes up for the times that Dad cried for me, because he sure was angry that I got him in the wrong drink.

KL: Disappointed, yeah. Were all three of those military that Tsuki was talking with, were they Japanese American or were they Caucasian?

MS: Just one. And actually, the one Japanese fellow, although he didn't get to sit with her or anything, he found out where we were gonna be. And he lived out in... where is it where Art's from?

ST: Turlock.

MS: Turlock, yeah. And he came to visit when we were in Hunter's Point. But he brought his buddy with him. This is his buddy that he knew from childhood, they were farmers and everything, and they knew each other real well. And his name was Art Peterson. Well, Art took a fancy to our sister, and the next time he came, he came to visit without his friend George. And they ended up getting married. [Laughs]

KL: Which sister?

MS: This is Tsuki.

KL: Oh, wow.

MS: She's sitting out on a farm out in Colorado now. Her husband passed away two years ago now, year and a half ago.

KL: What made her so attractive?

MS: She was very vivacious, she was very outgoing.

ST: She was smart, too.

MS: Nah, she wasn't. None of us were. [Laughs] But yeah, she was always very popular.

<End Segment 30> - Copyright © 2015 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.