<Begin Segment 15>

RP: Do you remember the day that you left camp?

KK: I remember I think maybe a truck or something came for us and then took us to a bus and then we got on a train but I don't know how that, you know, the continuity of it. I don't remember that but we went to Utah, we went to Salt Lake City, Utah. It was June of '45 that we left camp and went to Salt Lake and we lived in a town called Gunnison for about six months 'til February of '46 and we came back to LA. And it was... we lived in a hostel with a number of other families right near Alameda in downtown.

RP: Who ran the hostel?

KK: You know, I don't remember the people's names.

RP: Was it the Evergreen hostel?

KK: No, it was on Turner Street and that's all I know, 417 Turner Street. [Laughs] I don't know how that came (back to me).

RP: Just to go back to your residence in Gunnison --

KK: We lived on a small, in a small house... I don't know how my father arranged it but we lived with a family, a Kimura family, and they farmed, they had cabbages, celery, sugar beets and my father and mother worked on the farm. And then we lived with them briefly and then moved into a smaller house on their property.

RP: Did the Kimuras, were they put in a camp?

KK: No, they were... people in Colorado, Utah, were not interned.

RP: Were they curious about what --

KK: I don't remember, they probably were but they probably, you know, asked my parents about it. But we were intrigued because they had horses and, you know, huge horses, well, we were pretty little then but, you know, huge horses. And there was another family, a Miyatake family that lived across the way and they had a farm as well. And there were other Japanese families who lived in town.

RP: And they were all established families.

KK: Yes, people who, some who had moved there once, before relocation started. I think they just probably moved there because they eventually all came back to the West Coast.

RP: Did you go to school while you were there?

KK: Yes, I was in the sixth grade and it was... Mas and I visited there a number of years ago and that school house was burned down. But it was in a town called Centerfield, so we lived in Gunnison but the bus picked us up for school, it was about a five mile drive to school. And what I remember about the school was that they had a wonderful, it wasn't actually a cafeteria, but they had a cook and she'd make roast turkey or whatever and then we'd have sandwiches or turkey with mashed potatoes with this delicious gravy and we'd take fifty cents on Monday and that paid for the week, ten cents a day, you know. Wonderful lunches and we could smell the cookies baking, you know, during our mornings.

RP: Guess it must have tasted great after mess hall food.

KK: Yes, it really was, crunchy apples, although the children there complained because they were used to raw milk and they were just beginning to pasteurize at that time, or homogenize. But that was... we had a good time there. I remember I really enjoyed it because I was able to listen to the radio and listen to all the Sky King and Jack Armstrong and you're probably too young to remember all that. [Laughs]

RP: Was the enrollment of that school predominantly Caucasian?

KK: Yes.

RP: How were you treated by the others, by those kids?

KK: Oh, pretty well, pretty well. Some kids were a little nasty but others were not. And many were curious about us although there others (who were already part of the community) -- the Miyatakes had children our age and there was a Mori family. In fact, we became reacquainted (with the Moris) because they lived here in Santa Clara after Mas and I moved up here. But for the most part, people were quite friendly. Oh, I remember one incident while we were there. There was a German prisoner of war camp and one of the guards went berserk and he shot nine of the inmates. And then a few weeks later we went to town with Mr. Kimura for him to get a haircut and we were sitting outside, you know, little kids sitting outside waiting for him and someone came out of the barber shop and he said, "They should come and shoot all the Japs too." But, I mean, he sort of directed it at us as he left but that's the only incident I remember. That was an experience. But the, you know, it was interesting and fun, most of (the time), you know, they were mostly Mormon so we learned quite a bit about Mormonism.

RP: Were there efforts to convert you to that?

KK: No, but the children couldn't, they didn't eat chocolate, anything with caffeine in it, they said it was against the Word of Wisdom or something like that, I remember that type of thing.

RP: That didn't stop you did it?

KK: No. [Laughs]

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.