<Begin Segment 8>

RP: You told us about where you assembled at the Sawtelle Gakuen, and do you recall anything else about that day, that morning?

KK: That morning? I do remember in the kitchen before we left, there was a mattress on the floor, just an old mattress and my mother gave me a tall glass of milk and I really didn't like milk, and I know I didn't drink, I couldn't drink it. But I do remember that and then we went... I'm not exactly sure how we got to the gakuen because we were... I don't know whether we walked or, I mean, it was within walking distance.

RP: Many families on that day would dress up in their, some, you know, suits and Sunday best.

KK: You know, I don't remember what my parents wore or anything like that. No, I don't remember what the people wore.

RP: Do you remember anything about your trip on the bus to Manzanar?

KK: I do remember it was quite hot but they kept the shades pulled down. I don't know where we were when they let us put them up and open the windows. But at Christmastime my uncle had given me a little coin purse with I think four fifty cent pieces in it and I was tossing it as I sat, you know, in the bus as we were going and it flew out the window. [Laughs] Never to be seen again. That was the most memorable thing, I think.

RP: Do you recall soldiers on the bus, MPs?

KK: You know, I don't remember that, I think maybe we were allowed to get off and stretch halfway through and perhaps there was a soldier but I don't remember that clearly.

RP: You told me a story and I'm not sure if it associates with this being on the bus but you were talking about somebody started a club on the bus?

KK: No, I don't remember. I was only seven so I don't remember that.

RP: Where did you... where were you first assigned to when you got to the camp?

KK: Block 8. And we had to room with a young couple who had a baby, a new baby. And I remember my dad coming back with the mattresses, I mean, the white sacks that had been filled with hay. And I remember my mother and dad sort of stomping on it because my little... they didn't want my little brother to fall... roll off the bed. You know, because they were kind of rounded and so I remember them stomping on it. And our friends, family friends, the Morimotos, lived right across the way from us and there was... I believe they had someone living with them as well. We didn't stay there very long because the canteen was in that block and large trucks would come and my mother was concerned that we'd be run over or hit so we moved way across camp to Block 31. And the Morimotos moved with us, I mean, we all moved together and so they lived in... we lived in 31-11-2 and they lived in 31-11-1, the front part of that barrack.

RP: What do you remember about that barrack room?

KK: Well, it was pretty sparse. [Laughs] There was the oil stove and I don't believe there was any linoleum or anything on the floor because there were holes, knotholes, and we could look down and, you know, see the sand below. But eventually they put the linoleum in and my dad worked as a carpenter so that he could build some things. And so I remember him building storage with the surplus plaster board, they called it, what do they call it now?

RP: Sheetrock?

KK: Yeah, and so he... we had closets and he built me a little corner where I had a little desk and table. And it kind of separated the two areas, I mean, sort of the living area and the sleeping area.

RP: Almost like a partition?

KK: Yeah, the closet became like... but I don't remember my mother hanging, you know, I've seen pictures where people had hung blankets and things like that, we didn't have that. So my dad must have built those things right away and I think he built a table 'cause I remember having a table in there.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.