<Begin Segment 23>

RP: So let's talk a little bit about leaving camp. You told us about your uncles going, your two uncles leaving the camp.

CH: Yes.

RP: And when did, when did your family leave?

CH: It was, I think it was October 1945.

RP: Just a month before the camp closed.

CH: Something like that.

RP: What was it like at the end?

CH: Well, first of all, we had to move from 30 to 20 once more, I mean, once. And then somehow we decided, "We better not stay here any longer." Then we... I told you about the cat. I had this cat, beautiful cat, and put him in a crate, and we shipped him by rail. I don't know what we rode on. We must have rode on a train.

RP: Back up to Florin?

CH: Yeah. I can't, I don't remember that.

RP: Was there any food on the train for the cat?

CH: That's the one. We forgot to put anything... that's why. There was no cat food or anything, especially water. Wasn't that terrible? But when he got to Florin, we had him stay over at Bill Taketa's mother's, where she was staying. We left the cat there for a while, while we were in the hostel. All the things we did.

RP: How long did you have the cat in camp? When did you get the cat?

CH: Oh, my mother found him, maybe in '43. She found a sandbox, she found sand for the, you know, litter. Just a loving cat. And we had another one, too.

[Interruption]

RP: Where did she find the first cat? Was it in the block, in Block 30?

CH: Yeah, my mother found it. It just came into the camp somehow, or I don't know where else, where it would have been, unless it came from the administration area.

RP: Maybe somebody dumped him off on the highway.

CH: Well, gee, they sure dumped a beautiful cat. Long hair and creamy color. It was a beautiful cat. We called it Akachan. Akachan could mean "baby," or it could mean "red." Aka.

RP: Akachan.

CH: Yeah. It was kind of a red hair, red fur cat, so my mother named it that. And she's the one that brings home the liver for it. [Laughs]

RP: And the cat stayed in the room with you, or was it an outdoor cat?

CH: Well, both ways, yeah.

RP: How about this other cat? You said there was another one?

CH: His name was Moja.

RP: Moja?

CH: Yeah, he was like a tiger, Moja. And he was kind of feisty. He roamed around a lot looking for other cats, I suppose. But I don't know.

RP: So you, you shipped Akachan back to Florin, what happened to Moja?

CH: We had to leave him. We couldn't take both of them. We could have, but it was a little too much for us to handle.

RP: Do you recall seeing any other cats or dogs in the camp other than the ones that you had?

CH: There might have been somebody, but I don't recall.

[Interruption]

RP: This is tape three of a continuing interview with Carol Hironaka. And Carol, we were just talking about some of the cats that you took in at Manzanar. And you have another story about, about cats to share with us?

CH: Well, we had this cat -- this is in Florin. We had lots of little kitties. And one day, this man came over, and he said he wanted one of the kitties. Everybody says, "Yeah, go ahead, take any one you want." But before that I told my mother or somebody, "There's a man that looks like a bulldog." You know, he had kind of a mustache, and he looked so mean-looking. [Laughs] And I told that to my mother and she didn't say anything, but I thought it was kind of amusing. But we gave that cat away to this man. I remember that. And this man's name was Mr. Kadoya, Kadoya. He lived out that way. [Laughs] I could remember all those old things, but I can't remember the current things.

RP: Everybody's that way.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.