<Begin Segment 26>

RP: You graduated from Manzanar High School?

KT: I believe we were the last graduate, 1945.

RP: 1945. Do you remember your graduation, and did you have a prom afterwards, or dance?

KT: I'm sure we did. We did everything that everyone else on the outside would do.

NN: Do you remember who your date was?

KT: My goodness...

NN: Oh, maybe you didn't have a date. [Laughs]

KT: Oh, there were so many, which one? [Laughs]

NN: That's okay. But I remember when we were going out of camp, my dad had this panel truck, and we had this lady who joined us because she was going to come to the west Los Angeles area. And she was quite elderly, and it was quite traumatic for her, that travel. But aside from that, I remember there was some fear that I had -- I had to go to the bathroom real bad. But there was something that inhibited me from my dad saying, "We could take you into the lavatory here," or whatever it was. And I remember feeling that, somewhat of a fear in reference to it. And I imagine it's probably because of some prejudice that may have been the situation. But yeah, that was quite an experience with that lady in the car. She didn't have enough air and so she'd roll down the window...

AF: Yeah, she was very interesting because she was, well, her father was English, I think, and her mother was Japanese. But yet, she was very... she played the shamisen and sang, and she taught, I think she was teaching my sister Nancy the shamisen.

RP: So your father, how did he get a hold of the panel truck?

NN: That was his work truck.

AF: Yeah, he had it stored.

RP: Oh, that's right.

NN: I think he came out once with you before he came for the rest of the family.

AF: My father had his, all his cars stored in a Japanese garage somewhere in...

RP: Little Tokyo?

AF: Little Tokyo, yeah.

NN: And that was used for his nursery, the panel truck.

RP: The truck, okay. And so he got permission to come down and pick it up?

NN: And load up and take us all out.

RP: Do you remember that? You mentioned your story about that. Do you remember that day at all, finally leaving?

KT: Leaving camp? No, I don't. I don't remember leaving camp at all.

AF: Oh, I think we, didn't we go in a panel truck?

NN: Yes.

RP: And it was 1945?

AF: Probably, yeah. And then we went straight to the nursery, huh? My father still had the nursery, because he had leased it out to some Caucasian man.

RP: So you went right back to the nursery?

AF: Yeah, uh-huh.

NN: Did he lease that out, or did Mr. Spiegman take care of it?

AF: Yeah, yeah.

KT: He took care of it.

AF: He took care of it more or less on a lease basis, I think.

NN: I don't think he used it.

RP: There was no financial arrangement?

KT: I don't think so. There wasn't. In fact, I know there wasn't.

AF: Oh, I see.

KT: It's just that he came and he said that he would look after it.

AF: Oh, I see. She would know more about it because she was the eldest, and she did most of the business transactions for my dad, 'cause he didn't know any Japanese -- English, rather.

RP: And so you could you describe for us the first couple of weeks or months when you were trying to get resettled, what that was like?

AF: We went back to our old house.

RP: Probably a sense of exhilaration just being home?

AF: Yes, because we had our old house.

KT: I was very wary and kind of scared, because I didn't know what the people, the Caucasian people around would react. I mean, they had sons that went to war, and I remember one of 'em was killed.

NN: Mandamaker.

RP: Were there any other incidents that you've heard of?

NN: I remember when... VE Day? Was it VE day or VJ Day? I can't remember which one. But I heard the horns honking, car horns honking.

AF: You remember that?

NN: And vaguely hearing some yelling in the distance, but I thought, "What's going on? What's going on?" I think that was the end of the war, but I can't, I don't know which theater it was.

KP: When did you, when did you go back? Do you remember the month you went back?

NN: Oh, gosh. May, June...

AF: We got out of high school.

KP: You finished high school?

NN: Yeah, she graduated, so it must have been after that.

KT: June, '45.

NN: So it must have been right after that, maybe. But you went out before, with Dad.

KT: I think it was in August if I'm not...

NN: Oh, you went out?

KP: VJ Day, then, of '45.

RP: Right, then you would have heard those horns. Those were part of the, the celebration. And so your father kind of picked up where he left off in the business?

AF: Oh, yeah. Because he had a man take care of this place while we were gone. So he was a good businessman, I must say.

NN: But I imagine it was very --

AF: Spoke hardly any English.

KT: Everything was run down, and everything had to be rebuilt again. You could just say that we had a place to come back to, and that was it.

RP: That was about it. And how about returning to school? How were you treated by your classmates?

AF: I didn't have any problems, but you feel a little uncomfortable, I remember. But that's about all. We just fitted right in after that. I don't remember any incidents, do you?

KT: We were the last to graduate in camp, so I didn't have to worry about...

AF: Oh, that's right. Oh, and Nancy was too young. She was only in grammar school or something, kindergarten or something.

NN: No, no, I went into third, fourth grade, fourth, fifth. And I know, I guess the war affected these other teachers, too, so there were some... you can't pinpoint it, but then again, there was some --

AF: Estrangement?

NN: Yeah. Some sense of distance there.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.