<Begin Segment 3>

HH: When the war broke out, of course, December 7th, do you remember what you were doing that day?

CK: I was, the day of Pearl Harbor, I was in my senior year in training. I had to come down for lunch, and one of the doctors leaned over and told me, he said, "Hey, Tamaki, what's going on in Pearl Harbor?" I said, "What?" And I said, "I can't believe it," but that was the first time I knew about it.

HH: I see. So what were the events that followed after, for you and your family, after December 7th?

CK: After December 7th, I should say my older sister had been working in Washington, D.C., my brother was in Boston attending medical school. And I was in my senior year, so after we were put on the eight-thirty curfew, I realized that I really had to do something, that Tacoma people were being sent to Pinedale, California, for the assembly center. Well, my roommate was from Puyallup, Washington, and Puyallup, Washington, fairgrounds is the area where she always walked by. So she kept me informed what was going on over at the fairgrounds, that the wire fences were going up and all. And for me, being a senior, I wanted to finish my training in the state of Washington, because if I was sent to Pinedale, California, with my parents, that would mean that I would, wouldn't be able to finish training, that maybe, possibly at some later date, I might have to add another eight months or a year to finish my degree. So talking it over with the administrator, I was able to receive a special dispensation to stay in the state of Washington to go to camp in Puyallup where the Seattle people went, and not to go Pinedale in California. So from then on, I was strictly on my own. And being a nurse, I worked in camp, but in May was my graduation, and I wasn't able to attend. My roommate walked by herself, she said, "Nobody else will walk with me because you're supposed to be there." She's the one that brought me my diploma, to the camp, because she visited me all throughout, rain or shine, she'd stand there with an umbrella, the rain pouring. I'm standing inside and I'd be talking to her. And a soldier, a sentry would be standing next to us listening to our conversation, and at one time, one sentry said, "Come on in, let her come in and talk to you." So that's the way it was. But as far as camp went, we set up the whole hospital system, trained girls to become aides. In other words, we were busy, busy, busy, that we had nothing else to think about.

HH: So if I understand correctly, the rest of the time, you went to Pinedale, but you alone from your family went to the fairgrounds.

CK: Yes, uh-huh.

HH: Okay. How long... but that was an assembly center.

CK: That's assembly center.

HH: Where did you go after that?

CK: From assembly center, we were taken by train to Hunt, Idaho, to Minidoka.

HH: I see. Altogether, how many months did you spend in the two places?

CK: I would say at least fifteen months.

HH: Fifteen months?

CK: Uh-huh.

HH: And then what did you do after fifteen months?

CK: After fifteen months, coworkers, the nurses as well as premed students, started to write to various schools and hospitals for positions or for graduate work. And I cannot remember how many letters I wrote, sending a resume and all. And the only place that I was accepted was at Washington University Hospital in St. Louis, and it was called Barnes Hospital for graduate work in operating room. So with that, but at that time, we needed three people responsible for us with a letter stating as such. And this had to be in triplicate form. So with a hospital administrator being one, and director of nurses being another, promised me a nurses' dorm to stay. And then so happened that my former minister from, Baptist minister from Tacoma had the largest congregation in St. Louis. I wrote to him and he was the third one. So with that, I left camp with those three letters and the pass.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 1994 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.