Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community

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    BIJAC > Artworks > Oral History > Searched home inside and out – Sally Kitano (OH0072)

Searched home inside and out – Sally Kitano (OH0072)

Transcript

I had just gotten home from school and I saw these two big black cars, shiny cars sitting in the driveway. So of course I was all excited wondering who was there. And I ran in the house and the first thing my mother said, “Shhh… don’t say anything.” And I said, “Why?” And she said that the FBI are here. I said, &Oh.” Well, they searched our house, they searched our 5 acres of farm, they searched the outhouse, they searched the strawberry shacks, everything. Of course, they didn’t find anything. And then they asked, “Well, do you have any contraband?” And my dad was being very honest and he said, “Well, I do have some dynamite.” That was to be used for the farming. Well, they couldn’t find any. So they took him. Of course, that just devastated my brother. But he took care of the family. I was very fortunate, because I had the family to take care of me.

With

Video Interview — February, 2006

About the narrator

Sally Kitano

Shimako "Sally" Nishimori Kitano was 9 years old, in the fourth grade, when she was evacuated. She was the youngest of five children. The Nishimori family did not move to Minidoka with most of the Bainbridge Island Japanese. They stayed in Manzanar.