<Begin Segment 21>

RP: Your husband's family was also in Manzanar?

MI: Yeah, but my sister-in-law, my two sister-in-law and their husbands, they left real early. They weren't gonna stay there and they went to New York. And then Phil was in the army already 'cause he had volunteered the year before Pearl Harbor. And then his brother never, his older brother was also drafted. So the younger brother was in camp but he left early, too. So it was basically just the father.

RP: What about the mother? Was there a mother?

MI: The mother had passed away by that time. Yeah.

RP: You said the father actually, I don't know if it was a hobby or a job, but he raised bees in the camp?

MI: Oh, he did all kinds of stuff. Raised bees, raised canaries, still remember when he was training this darned canary. He said, "Don't make a sound because he picks up on those." Gee, what do you... it used to drive me crazy when I lived with him. Oh, gee, "Cut that out." [Laughs] Yeah, but he was a clever unique man, I have to say. He came from very nice family background in Japan. I knew his art. So he has some things in his house that people from the museums would loved to have had.

RP: Art from Japan?

MI: Yeah.

RP: Do you know what he did before he went to camp?

MI: Floral business.

RP: He did pretty well?

MI: Barely. He lost a couple business opportunities or, or he lost the business. And then as the kids grew up and started helping out, then it got a little bit easier. So I see, you know, where the family was not as close. 'Cause they can't be close when you have, one is on delivery and one is this and one is that. And so there was never this eating together, you know. It was different from my family.

RP: How did you meet your husband?

MI: In camp. It's crazy. So romantic, gosh. Says, "Where did you meet your husband?" Oh, yeah in camp. "Where?" "Oh, on the mess hall line." Now how more romantic can you get? And then he says, "On top of that, she walks away from me once we get inside." I said, "I didn't know you had any thoughts in your mind." Come on, speak up. [Laughs] Whatever.

RP: So he came, he came back from his military activities to visit his father?

MI: Father, yeah.

RP: And that's how you guys met.

MI: Yeah. 'Cause his sister was still there. His sister was the oldest of all the siblings. And you know he got inspected. Wearing a U.S. uniform, they checked out his knives. Says, gee... crazy. But there's a lot of crazy things in life. You know when you think back you go, sometimes you think that is so crazy. That is so low. Why did he do that? And then you end up that he was the smartest one in the bunch like this guy at the, there was what they called the cooperative. Did you hear about that? There was a market. Not a market it was a store where you could buy things you can't get in the camps, you know. The co-op they called it.

RP: Right, there was...

MI: Right and we're all supposed to be members of that co-op, right?

RP: Right.

MI: And so apparently if you save your receipt then at some point you get a refund. Well everybody just threw it away. Who's gonna bother with this little itty bitty... this one old gentleman went picking it up every single day. And you know he got laughed at and everything. I think it was, he was laughing at us, you know. See, so, it's really funny when you think about it.

[Interruption]

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.