Densho Digital Archive - Ko Nishimura Interview (denshovh-nko-01-0009)

<Begin Segment 9>

KL: What happened next?

KN: Well, we ended up in Manzanar.

KL: Did you guys go through Pomona Assembly Center?

KN: No, that's what I said, we didn't go through any of that stuff.

KL: Straight to Manzanar from Reedley.

KN: Because we actually... it's the same thing, Sam ended up in Amache from Reedley. It's a wonder we didn't run into each other then.

KL: Yeah, yeah. Where was Shimpei during those months?

KN: Shimpei wasn't around. I can't remember Shimpei being around. That story, that newspaper story that I gave you, you have, they said they called them from someplace to Manzanar. They said he was in Pasadena.

KL: Yeah, the story I've always... I mean, like the Hirosawas, they... I can't remember where they were living. But if they had been regular people without the guayule connection, they would have gone to another camp. I mean, a lot of the guayule people who were a very early part of the project came from elsewhere.

KN: Yeah, I think they got handpicked. And I know Frank Hirosawa was one of the people handpicked, I think.

KL: Yeah, I think that's right.

KN: For his analytical chemistry skills.

KL: So it was you and your mother and your grandmother and your father who were in Reedley together and then came to Manzanar, is that correct?

KN: Yeah, oh, and Mr. Hori. That was my grandfather's cousin from Sendai. He always called him our cousin in Japanese, so I assume he was my grandfather's cousin. And nobody really knew. And then, see, this is some of the things I can't figure out, he called Japan about it, fairly recently. We ended up in the picture of, they're having a memorial service for my grandmother when she died. In a temple in Japan, this about 1951. And there's a lady sitting next to the priest, has my grandmother's picture, her name was Hori. When the Nishimuras sent the picture that identified her and said her name was Hori, so somehow this Hori family is very closely related to us, I'm not quite sure how. She wouldn't be holding the picture, right, of my grandmother? So anyway, even my closest cousin can't tell me that, and he's in the picture and he's only about this tall. I said, "Kazuo, you were there, weren't you?" He said, "Oh, yeah, I was there at that service." I said, "Who was that lady holding up the..." "I don't know." I said, "She was identified as a Hori." Says, "Oh, really? I don't know who that is," he said. Because I was only about seven or eight or ten or something like that.

KL: Yeah, that was probably not his main interest, is the genealogy or whatever, right.

KN: He was wondering what he was doing there. So anyway, I'm not quite sure, but that's what I know about it.

KL: So what do you know about the trip to Manzanar? Do you have any memories of that?

KN: All I remember is I had memories coming there. I think we were one of the very few people that went to Manzanar, took more than what they could carry with two hands. You know why? Because I remember coming in with a truckload of stuff.

KL: So you guys drove yourself?

KN: I don't know who drove it, but I remember there was a truck next to the barrack. I don't know how we got there. I have no idea how we got there. I remember this truck full of loaded stuff, people, of course, we gave some of this stuff away because we couldn't put it all in the house. I'm pretty sure that's what happened.

KL: Oh, interesting.

KN: It was [inaudible] truck, it was loaded like this.