<Begin Segment 9>

MK: When the war was coming close, did you often turn on the radio for updates?

CE: Yes, we were listening to the radio. It was Sunday when the war started. Our children came home and shouted, "Mom! Japan started to fight!" I remember that I could not stop my legs from shaking when I heard about the Emperor's announcement. The war started.

MK: You were scared.

CE: Yes. We saw Mr. Watanabe and Mr. Fujita. Mr. Fujita lived next door, and we were going back and forth like relatives. They came, and we made a fire in the hot house. We kept working though.

MK: You kept working after the war started on December 7th.

CE: We planted what we needed to plant in the hot house. Just as we always had been.

MK: The Executive Order was issued in February to send you to an incarceration camp. Were you sent to an assembly center first?

CE: Yes.

MK: You had to sell everything before you left, didn't you?

CE: We left everything behind because we had our white boss...

MK: ...to take care of your belongings while you were gone.

CE: Yes. Our white boss was very nice. He took us to the assembly center, no, no, relocation center, in Gresham in Portland.

MK: You left with all you could possibly carry.

CE: Yes, with all we could physically carry. [Laughs] I had children and didn't know what to do.

MK: Did your husband pass away at the assembly center?

CE: No, no. He died at home.

MK: It was in April, wasn't it?

CE: It was in March.

MK: Oh, in March.

CE: It was on March 25th. He went to the hot house with Mr. Watanabe from next door and Mrs. Fujita. He came home with a headache. I think he had a stroke. We asked Shiomi, Dr. Shiomi to come over to see him. The doctor told us that it was the worst possible case. We watched him all day with Mrs. Fujita. Kei was still only nine, and he went over to his father in the morning and said, "Dad, are you still sleeping? Wake up!" [Laughs] That was it. He was around for only one more night. He smiled and passed away. I was told that he would have about one hour before he would lose consciousness. He just kept looking at me and said, "I see you. I see you." I think he knew that his life was ending. He was asking me to take care of the family when he was saying, "I see you, I see you." That was the end.

MK: How old was he?

CE: He was much older than I am. Forty... How old was he? He was fifty-six, I think.

MK: Fifty-six years old.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.