<Begin Segment 11>

RP: I'd like to get back to this direction that we're going with evacuation, and a Mr. Speakman took over the nursery. Was that all the nurseries or just...

NN: He just watched the place. There was nothing growing, there was no product, but he was just, it was just a matter of just staying in the house.

KT: And watching the places.

RP: And making sure that nobody...

NN: Right. But with greenhouses, you know, the glasses are so fragile. There was quite a few damages that my father, I know, had to repair. But...

RP: Did your father have to leave crops and things?

NN: Yes.

AF: I think by that time, he was going into gardenia.

KT: But then he had to leave everything as is. He didn't have a chance to...

AF: So he had gardenia plants growing in the greenhouses, I remember, when we left.

RP: So you were very fortunate to have had somebody...

AF: Yes.

KT: Yes, we were. We were very lucky.

RP: That's your economic --

KT: 'Cause at least we had a place to come home to.

NN: And the others within our community who lost their place, that's where they were housed, at the VJCC, the Venice Japanese Community Center. And they, the classrooms, it was just a long string of bungalow. And what they used to do is partition sections off for families with blankets or sheets, and they had army cots, and they would stay inside the classrooms. And they also had, I think they had it in the, they had the kitchen area, the old kitchen, before they renovated it.

RP: This is after...

AF: And they also had tents set up on the grounds to house the people coming back. And so once they... and the ones, they, Mr... was it Bishop? He was Christian minister who was there, I recall, assisting with whatever needs that was needed by the people.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.