<Begin Segment 4>

RP: Tell us a little bit more about the Lanfears.

DK: Well, he was, as I was saying, he was a big strapping rancher, and he used to be out in the orchard many hours a day and night. When it would get cold he'd have to put out the smudge pots, I remember that, and light the smudge pots and, he worked very, very hard. And hardly made a living I think on, on the oranges. But, they just made it, made a go of it. And the two boys, Glenn and Clarence, were in college. They were going to college. And they treated me like a little sister. They called me, they nicknamed me Dukie. So I was always Dukie to them. And up until the time that they passed away I was still Dukie. Yeah, the referred to me as Dukie. But, that was because they, they felt I was being treated like a Duke, I guess, I don't know. [Laughs] But, anyway, that was... and of course Annie, Mrs. Lanfear, was from Sweden. She had been here since she was a teenager I guess. And I think she was married to Mr. Lanfear for years and years and years. And they finally, well, he passed away in 1945 and I was in New York at that time so I was able to, I took the train all by myself to California and it just so happened on the way back from, the, after the funeral, it was V-J Day. Did you know I was on the train on V-J day?

Off Camera: I don't remember.

DK: Yeah. Yeah, so that was quite exciting. And there were all these soldiers on the train and everything and I was kind of scared 'cause I was what, thirteen, fourteen. Somethin' like that, anyway. But, anyway, he passed away in '45 and then Annie passed away about, she was in the 1980s huh?

Off Camera: Right.

DK: Yeah, she was close to a hundred, I think, when she passed away. But, she was, she was a hard working woman and just lovable. Everybody loved Annie and what else can I say? They were just a great family.

RP: Yeah, right. If you have any other memories about growing on that farm.

DK: Uh-huh.

RP: Earlier memories of...

DK: Yeah, I just remember that I was in this cast and I had to be turned over every once in a while so I wouldn't get bedsores. And they had a front porch that was screened in and I -- on the second floor -- and I used to be out there all the time in the, during the day most of the time. Let's see...

RP: How long, how much time did you actually spend in bed with the cast and how long was it before you could actually get up and move around?

DK: Well, in between I was up, I was able to walk after they take the cast off. I had home-schooling. Not home-schooling, but what do you call it, teachers coming to the home.

Off Camera: Tutoring.

DK: Yeah, home tutoring, during the times that I was in the cast. My last surgery was in 1941. Just after, just before the war started. And that's why I... when they started the evacuation I was, I wasn't at home. I was living at Rancho Los Amigos. I don't know if you know where that is, but it's in Downey. It was a rehabilitation place. And so I was there, I guess, for a couple of months maybe. And then they got ready to move people from the relocation centers. Not relocation, what where they?

RP: Assembly centers?

DK: Yeah, assembly centers, to the relocation centers. So they, they figured I guess that I was ready to go. So, I was on crutches but I still had to, they took, they took me and another Japanese girl from the center to Pomona just about three days before we went to Heart Mountain. So when Annie and Ari, the Lanfears, found out that I was, that I had been taken to camp... they didn't know that I was, they were gonna take me. Because she was trying to, she was trying all different angles to keep me here but they, they, excuse me, they took me to camp and this was the first time that I had actually been with my biological parents in ten years or so I guess it was, huh. And then they came to the camp. They came to Pomona because they lived here in, in Covina. And 'course, it was very traumatic because they knew that I was leaving and there was nothing they could do and I knew it and there was nothing I could do. So, they came to the camp and we had our goodbyes and that was, then we went on the train to Heart Mountain. And after we got there it was so, so different and it was just, it was very hard. I know I cried a lot of nights to sleep. And there were letters... of course, Mrs. Lanfear was not a letter writer. She could not write letters so I was doing all the writing practically and telling her what I was doing, this and that. And, but I finally got settled in so... and then we're... it was just my two brothers and my parents and myself at the beginning, and then Sachi came later on. So that, that helped me too because I had nobody to talk to. I mean, you know, my brothers were eleven and fifteen or something like that and they weren't much help to me, huh. But my, my older brother did. He used to take me to the mess hall and things like that. But I had no friends. I didn't know any, any people at, in camp hardly at all. And...

RP: Earlier you were, you were sharing the fact that you really thought you were white and...

DK: Well, yeah, uh-huh, I guess I did. Because I just, nobody ever said that anything to me until later. But, as a little kid I didn't, I didn't realize that I was different.

RP: You maintained some connection with your biological family during the time that you were with the Lanfears?

DK: Yes. They, they wanted me to make sure that I would know my family so they used to take me about every week to see them. And we'd, my folks grew vegetables and things like that so they would always go home with a carload of, of vegetables. So that...

RP: What was that like for you to, to meet, be with your...

DK: I was always ready to go home. I always said, "Let's go home." And, I didn't realize that that was my home. But, I know I used to, I liked to play with my little brother, Paul, when he was little, and, but we used to fight, 'cause we were both spoiled I think. And yes, I was spoiled as a kid. 'Cause I used to get my way all the time.

RP: And the Lanfears lived how far away from, from your...

DK: Maybe about five miles. Yeah, five miles or so. It wasn't far.

RP: In talking about being aware of your ethnicity and that type of thing, school kind of gave you a little bit of awareness of that too. Can you talk about that?

DK: Right, yeah, yeah, yes. Yes, I felt a little different in school. 'Cause I was the only Asian or I would say, the only "off-colored person" in the school most of the years that I was there.

RP: Where did you go to school?

DK: It was called Lark Ellen.

RP: Lark Ellen?

DK: Uh-huh, grammar school.

RP: And that was in Covina?

DK: Yes, uh-huh.

RP: Did you walk to school or did you get transportation?

DK: No, no. I think that they had school bus, a bus that used to come pick me up. And I think maybe he dropped me, Ari used to drop me off, too, at school sometimes.

RP: And what were your, do you remember some of your early interests in school? Did you gravitate towards arts or anything in particular growing up?

DK: I don't remember. I just remember that I wanted to be accepted, you know, by everybody. And I had one, one good friend that used to, well, yeah, she used to take the bus with me and they lived, they lived close to where my folks lived. And I used to get off all the time with her and then Ari would have to come and pick me up. He wasn't very happy about that. Muro Lavady. Uh-huh, yeah. And so, I had, but I didn't have a lot of close friends in school.

RP: You mentioned that a difficult situation was revolving around some of these school dances?

DK: Yeah, yeah. They weren't exactly school dances. They were teaching us how to dance and everybody else would be dancing and I would be the only one sitting, you know, by myself, for, unless the teacher would tell one of the boys to come and dance with me. So, that was kind of, it hurt. And I --

RP: Did you find yourself...

DK: -- and I remember that.

RP: Did you find yourself trying even harder to be accepted then...

DK: Yeah, well, maybe I just kind of went into a little shell on my own. I don't know. I just, I just kind of... then when I went to camp, I didn't know anybody except... so that was really hard on me.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.