Densho Digital Archive - George Uchida - Leo Uchida Interview (denshovh-ugeorge

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RP: Let's go down your list of siblings, maybe just a brief comment about each one. In order of their birth, oldest first, who was the first brother or sister?

GU: The first was named Mary. She married into a Kiino family, K-I-I-N-O. And she was the only one from our family that didn't go to Manzanar.

RP: Where did she go?

GU: She...

LU: Oh, when the war broke out, right after Pearl Harbor, I think, from next day, they started to round up, they called it the... they figured they were kind of possibly "dangerous aliens." And somehow, Mr. Kiino, I think he got a job as an interpreter at that, one of those detention centers. I think it was in Santa Fe, New Mexico. And so I don't know, I found out later on, but instead of going to camp, they both went, they were over there in Santa Fe, New Mexico. So they never went into relocation center. And like I say, he worked as an interpreter.

RP: In the camps.

LU: Yeah. And so when we were in Manzanar, one of the sister, Mary, she was able to visit us in Manzanar with her daughter.

RP: Do you know how long they stayed in Santa Fe?

LU: I think until the place was all cleared up after the war, I guess.

RP: Was Mr. Kiino a Nisei or an Issei?

LU: He could speak both Japanese and English pretty good, so I would consider him an older Nisei, I guess.

RP: So he, it sounds like he was hired by the government to interpret.

LU: Yeah. Before that, in Florin, he was in charge of Strawberry Association, that big shed was for the...

RP: As a cooperative?

LU: Yeah, they shipped the strawberries to different markets and all that.

RP: He was in charge of that?

LU: Yes. So he was a pretty capable person. I think my dad, since he can't speak English, but Mr. Kiino, he could speak both. So I think my dad confided in him a lot for legal matters and things like that.

RP: A very important person to have around.

LU: [Laughs] Yeah. And after the, after he's working in New Mexico, I think somehow he landed in, he was in Michigan. And they operated a restaurant over there.

GU: He has a brother there.

LU: And his brother and a wife.

RP: Is there, is there the possibility that he might have been an internee at this Santa Fe camp rather than an employee?

LU: Mr. Kiino?

RP: He was taken by the --

LU: Yeah, I guess I would say that if he wasn't working in Santa Fe, he would have, just like us, he would have had to go into one of the camps.

RP: So that was your older sister Mary. How much older was she than you?

GU: I think she was old enough to be my mother. [Laughs]