<Begin Segment 15>

RP: Did you see Heart Mountain as kind of a way station on, on your way out the door to freedom?

SK: Well, I kept that in my mind 'cause Maki had told me, "This is your first step to freedom." So I did think of that and just a few months, just three months after, or maybe less than that, my uncle sent the letter to the administration saying that he would see that I was adequately supported. He was my sponsor. So then I left three months after that. But it wasn't so sad because I knew then that they would be joining me in New York. The first time I left, everything was so uncertain. Nobody knew if they were ever (returning home). (We knew) we would get together, so that was not a real sad parting.

RP: Uh-huh. And, what was your feeling like when you first got to New York and...

SK: Oh, very excited, very excited. Because, first of all, I'd never been in such a big city with tall buildings and all the people and all the noise and the sirens. It was really, really exciting. I was happy to be there and to start what I thought would be a new life.

RP: And, what did you start doing? How did you get yourself sort of settled in in New York?

SK: Oh, because my sisters were there before me I was very fortunate because they kind of paved the way. They had this apartment and so I just moved in with them. And my uncle had a job waiting for me. He thought that because I had a college degree, I should have a job better than assembling gift things, so he made me his secretary. So I wrote his business letters for him. But I also, when I had time, helped them assemble things. But, as I said, he had changed from exporting to domestic gift items, I mean, gift items that could be made from domestic supplies, sources. So, that's what my sisters were doing.

RP: Oh, your sisters were, were assembling?

SK: Yeah, yeah.

RP: Family enterprise?

SK: Yeah. And then he had several people working for him and one was a German lady, Hilda.

Off Camera: Hilda, yeah.

SK: And then one was an Italian lady. And so we called ourselves the "Mini-Axis." [Laughs] So, anyway, it was, it was nice.

RP: You said that your uncle had gone to New York in 1927. So he was pretty well established.

SK: Yeah, yeah. He was, he was established.

RP: Did he have a wife too, or...

SK: Yeah, uh-huh.

RP: And kids?

SK: Well, his wife had a daughter. She had been married before. So, anyway.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.