<Begin Segment 17>

RP: So how did life change for you in the time between December 7th and the time that you and the rest of the Terminal Islanders were sort of kicked off the island? What do you...

TI: Well, my store was locked up and we had a Caucasian fellow, I don't know what his status was but he was there to make sure that there was no business. And I think he had several other places he was assigned to because he makes the rounds and come to our place and go around several times a day. And, well, there wasn't any conversation between us. And that was it. But he'd let us get into the store, I think, a couple times during the day to get supplies for the family. So, well, of course the store wasn't open so a lot of the perishables, you know, we tried to take those out and consume it ourselves.

RP: So, did the store ever open again during that time?

TI: No, no it, it never opened.

RP: And that was the same case for all the stores?

TI: I believe so.

RP: Were you subject to a curfew as well?

TI: I believe there was a curfew but I can't remember. Well, there's no place we can go anyway and everything's locked up, and we didn't want to be seen wandering around at night so we just stayed home.

RP: Did you have any thoughts or ideas of about what might happen next?

TI: No. It never came to my mind. Well, we know the war was going on and that was bad but what's beyond the war we never thought, I never thought.

RP: Did the forty-eight hour notice that the navy gave all families on Terminal Island kind of catch you by surprise?

TI: Oh it certainly did. Yeah. I thought that was cruel though, in a way, because where can you go in forty-eight hours? A friend came over and asked me if I could contact some business that had truck, moving business. And I made several calls but they were all busy. They weren't taking anybody else. Naturally, with several hundred families there, there just wasn't any way the moving company could get involved. But we were fortunate that we had this friend in Venice. He owned a truck and he moved all our groceries out of the house but that was about it. The furniture and everything we just had to just leave behind. And we never found out what happened. Oh, did I tell you about the truck? I had a panel truck and I was the only one able to drive it in the family so naturally we got in my Oldsmobile I guess and took off but before -- I was gonna leave the truck there in front of the house -- but a gang of young guys came over and they wanted to know if they could buy the tire off of the truck. I said, "Sure." Somehow they removed the tires, four tires, and then shortly after that another group came and they said can they buy the truck itself. I said, "No, no tires." They said, "Well, we'll get it." So they brought four tires and I sold the body to them. Tires, I sell for ten dollars, four of 'em for ten dollars. And the body I sold for ten dollars. So I sold the whole truck for twenty dollars.

RP: And that was kind of indicative of some of the stories that we've heard about, you know, these junk men coming on the island and --

TI: Oh, yeah. I believe that.

RP: -- roaming around and...

TI: Yeah. So, I can't say I was ahead by twenty dollars but I would have abandoned the truck.

RP: What did you do with the Oldsmobile?

TI: I took the family in it and we went to Venice/Culver City area where our friend had rented a house for us. But I had to eventually get rid of the Oldsmobile when the evacuation order came out. I think I sold it for about a couple hundred dollars if I'm not mistaken. Some car dealers or secondhand dealers.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.