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RP: So where were you on December 7, 1941?

MS: Oh, I was working in Hollywood. And, let's see, now at that time I was working in a home. Wouldn't be on my own yet. And, yes, that was interesting. Because I remember things that happened. But I was not in touch with the Japanese community and... but I had dated. I was trying to think of when did I date. I had dated George Stanicci once before and I also, and I had dated some others, too. But I had lost track of everybody. And, and then when I heard about what happened, it, it just gave me such a shock. And I had done some, done some artwork on my own and there was, let me see, what was it? A poem... it's, it's something like "When winter comes, can spring be far behind?" Do you remember that poem? If I remember that part that had that... so I went up on Hollywood Boulevard and decided to make a card. And, and I sketched, well, I bought a piece of acetate and sketched and, you know, engraved a little card. And it had a barren tree, it was this tree, and some, some crosses, and, but and that, that was it. You see, this was going to be winter, but there would be spring. And I remember that was the card that I sent out to friends.

And then I didn't want to be left alone because I was, my family had gone since they had already been evacuated in their section of the city. So I asked my friend, one of my friends that was in the girls club with me when I was younger, and, and we still kept in touch. It was, as a matter of fact, we were active. And it was called, the girls club was actually called Rho Sigma Rho. But, so that's, so I asked to stay with her and she lived right next to George Stanicci that I had dated before, once anyway, and I thought that would be nice because at least I would know one person and, you know, and her family. So I stayed with her, but then her parents, I guess were... friends of their parents wanted them to move to another place in order to go to a different, I don't know, place. So, so she and her family moved out and I was living in her house alone. It was...

RP: Where was this?

MS: In Boyle Heights.

RP: In Boyle Heights.

MS: In Boyle Heights, yes.

RP: You mentioned that your family had been evacuated earlier.

MS: Because they were in Highland Park.

RP: And where did they go?

MS: They went to Manzanar. Yes, and my brother had gone to volunteer. Did I mention that?

RP: Was that Philip, or...

MS: No, that was Paul. Philip was in the army. Philip and Frank were in the army. And Paul volunteered to go because they said that he could take, he could drive his own car. And so he filled his own car and, I think I might have mentioned that. Yes. And had driven up. And then they had evacuated that large section and I think they took large sections where there weren't very many Japanese and Boyle Heights had many many Japanese and they would have to have a lot of barracks ready, and so...

RP: So, how did you feel? You're alone, you're in the house.

MS: Oh, that was an interesting experience. It was... and then when our time came, we were all being evacuated, so I knew that that whole section of town was going, and we knew the time. And one thing that... I was trying to think of the kind of reaction I had. Because I found out the next morning when I got up and got ready to go that his mother had stayed up to scrub the kitchen floor of the house that they were renting and I could not... how could you spend your time scrubbing a kitchen floor, you know, before you were getting ready to leave? And, I think as Niseis, I don't think we would have had that inclination that there was any need to do that kind of cleaning before we were leaving. But, I will add though, that last night I was in one of the discussion groups that they had. And there was a lady whose ancestors came from Finland, sat next to me. And I mentioned that, the incident about my, my neighbor scrubbing the kitchen floor. And she said she was so delighted to kind of, that really struck her because her great-grandmother did exactly the same thing in Finland when the Russians were coming. And the Russians had been... they knew the Russians were coming and had been burning all the houses as they came. And she heard that her grand, great-grandmother I guess it was, had scrubbed the floors and had put out flowers and that she could never understand that. So when she heard about my story of the neighbor scrubbing her... and so we thought, alright, it was, it was kind of a deep, not ethic, but... the way they were brought up is either it was something, alright, there was a pride or there was something there that this is something that they would do. 'Cause it was a reflection of themselves. And so that was very interesting to me, to both of us. Because now it was a, it was something universal. It was a universal reason, and so that was... but, of course I was shocked at the time, very shocked.

And we went on the train, the old dusty train. I think they pulled them out of storage because all the other trains were being used to move the troops. And we had, and I think there were old gas-light fixtures left on the old trains. But I remember the seats were very dusty. If you just... [Waves hand] And they did give us a little lunch box and I think mine had a sandwich and an apple, that had a sandwich and an apple or something. But, so we got off this train eventually in Lone Pine, and then we were transferred to a bus. So we sat in, near the back of the bus. Then when we were coming close to Manzanar, the bus driver said, "Now, you should be with your family and friends." Because as you come off there's little groupings of probably eight or so that go into one room. And now here I was alone and my friend next-door then, George and his mother, would be two more. That's three, because we would be together and I didn't know anyone else. And so he looked around the bus and he saw two friends of his and so he ran up to them and said, "Would you like to join in our group because we...." And they said, "Yes," because they were alone too. And so they joined our group and we were very small group of five then, was it, one, two, three, four, five? And we were concerned whether we would have to have another family. And, but they decided that we could have, be in just one room. Fortunately, because George and Grace Sasaki had just gotten married not too long before and that to me was always a shame to have had to spend their first year in Manzanar with two other families. And we hung blankets, but that was really not very sufficient.

RP: Just to backtrack a little bit, do you, do you remember your state of mind about, you know, when you heard about the evacuation and that you'd have to leave? Did you have any strong feelings about, "Why is this happening to us?"

MS: Well, I did, because I had been thinking about it and I thought -- this was far before anything had been declared in terms of evacuation -- and I said, you know, there's a possibility that the, our parents, would be, would be put into a camp or taken because they're Issei and they are necessarily aliens because they could never apply for citizenship. And since they were denied citizenship, they're obviously aliens and now they would be considered "enemy aliens." And I was concerned about that because I thought they might... but I never thought that citizens would be... I mean, due process. I mean, after all, we have... so that was a great shock. That was a very great shock. And I knew I would have to deal with that.

RP: Did you have any affiliation at all with the JACL at that time?

MS: No. I knew every, I knew them all but, as a matter of fact, I dated some of them. [Laughs] But, yes, kind of had been seriously involved with one. No, and I think partly because I had never been involved with the Japanese community that much. And I really didn't feel that much a part of it. And, yeah...

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.