As soon as people found out that the Japanese had to evacuate, many second hand store people came to buy our furniture. We sold out belongings dirt cheap, and I think those people did well because during the war, they didn’t make any new furniture. We took our truck to Utah, and since I was pregnant with my third child, we knew it was impossible for me to drive. We had a practically new car that we just finished car payments on it, and since we didn’t use it too much, we still had a brand new tire in the trunk. We sold the car for only $500. Our furniture was also quite new, since we were married only 3 years, and we had to sell it too.
Eisaku’s friend and relatives were very generous, and we got furniture for our wedding presents. We had a new bedroom set, dining set, kitchen stove, and kitchen set. We had a good life and were very happy. We heard that Utah was such a primitive place and didn’t have any gas or electric stoves, so it was no use taking them. However, they did have gas and electricity in Utah, but where we lived when we got to Utah was not modern at all. In fact, it was entirely different. When we came to Utah, we stayed with the Shiki’s in Roy, Utah.
The second hand store bought our furniture for very cheap. They would pay only $3 or $5 for our dining room set, and carpets, but we knew we couldn’t take them all, so we sold a lot of things. We loaded our truck with just the things that we knew we would need, we thought it was the end of the world. We never thought that we would have another Christmas, so we just left our Christmas lights in the closet. We did have Christmas, but couldn’t get Christmas lights for many years. Ken had alittle car that he loved to ride around the yard, but we just left it there too. Lots of friends came to help load the truck and to say goodbye. I still remember that day, and how sad and scared we were. We left on March 31, 1942, the last day of the voluntary evacuation date.
In our truck we had Eisaku, myself, our 4 year old son, and our 2 year old daughter. I was also pregnant, expecting a child in August, so it must have not been a very comfortable way of traveling to Utah. We were scared to travel because there were rumors that when they see Japanese traveling by themselves, you never knew what would happen. I guess we were lucky because we didn’t have any problems. The only problem I remember is when we came to Utah, and went to a restaurant and they didn’t come to serve us and finally said, “we do not serve jap.”
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