<Begin Segment 13>

SS: What was it like when you finally got there?

EW: Oh... I had never been to California, in the first place, and where they took us was in the desert and flat mountains or hills, I think. And to see all the barracks -- army-style barracks -- and dirt and sand, nothing beautiful at all. And to be dumped off there like we were cattle. I remember my younger brother... it was hard for him because he had never been around that many Japanese Americans. And so, it was quite a traumatic thing for him.

SS: That's right, some of your other siblings, your older siblings were probably professionals at that point.

EW: Well, my sister, oldest one, had married in November of the year, Pearl Harbor, '41. And so she had her own family, her husband, and then her first son was born in Tule Lake. And so all that -- my brother was in the army, had been drafted. And so all we had left at home was my sister and brother, and my parents.

SS: Did you stay together as a family at camp?

EW: Yes, uh-huh.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 1996 Densho. All Rights Reserved.