<Begin Segment 12>

SS: Did you ever worry about your family in California after the war broke out, what would happen to them?

HW: Yes, yes. Because there was talk about having to get out of, off the coast, and I was the oldest and my brother was not of legal age yet. And the thought was that if they moved to a place and bought a farm, then they could stay there, you know, and it would be on the other side of the line, line of demarcation, as they call it. Which they did, but I wasn't home so my brother-in-law's brother, who was of age, said, "I will sign." He was a citizen and of course born here, and he was legal age, so he signed for the farm. So then the family moved there, which was fine, but then not long after they moved there, it was discovered they were gonna change the line of demarcation. Which they did, so then they had to be evacuated, yes. And meanwhile, I had been, all of us that were in the Pacific Northwest in the military units were all gathered up in Fort Lewis. And there were probably 350 of us there, gathered up there wondering what's gonna happen to us. And then they evacuated us out of Fort Lewis in March in 1942.

SS: What were you thinking about that kind of treatment?

HW: Well, it was kind of a weird treatment in a sense, because when they said, "Pack up your stuff. You're gonna go." And we got on the trucks and we didn't know how far we were gonna be on the truck, we only went about a mile or two to the (train) siding at Dupont, which is at Fort Lewis. And there was a troop train there, and the truck pulled off Highway 99 on the shoulder, and we got out of the trucks and then we got on the troop train. But we got on the troop train alphabetically. The Andos and so forth in the first car, and all the Watanabes, Yaguras, Yamaguchis, and so forth in the last car. And, still, I didn't see anybody around. That was kind of a mystery to me because a chaplain came to see us off, but there was nobody, no other officers on board the train with us, only the train crew and us. That was a real weird situation. Of course, then we were all advised that if we pulled into a station, every station we pulled into, you gotta pull the blinds so they can't see who we are, who's in the car, in the trains.

But a funny incident happened before we took off. We were all loaded up and the train started pulling out. And I was in the last car lookin' out the window, sitting next to the conductor, and a car driving down Highway 99. I look in there and Bill Nuno is in the car lookin' at the train, you know. And I told the conductor, "Hey, he's supposed to be on the train here. He's gotta be on the train." So the conductor pulled on the emergency cord and stopped the train. It had only gone a couple of hundred yards, you know. And the train stops and Bill gets out of the car, and we jump out of the train, and Bill says, "What am I gonna do with my car?" Brand new car, '41 Ford, a sedan. So, the chaplain comes rushing up the railroad tracks wondering, "What's going on, what happened, what happened? Why'd the train stop and why's Bill out there?" So I told chaplain, I says, "He's supposed to be on the train, but he doesn't know what to do with his car." And the chaplain says, "Bill, do you know where they're sending you?" And he says, "Well, I'm supposed to go to Leavenworth, Fort Leavenworth in Kansas." And chaplain said, "If you trust me, give me your keys, because I've just been transferred to Leavenworth, and my wife is, and I are gonna drive to Leavenworth. But she can drive my car and I will drive your car, and when I get to Leavenworth, I'll look you up." That's how that happened there. Then we went east. We went through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming. They dropped off a carload here, and a carload there. And we were in the last car and we were dropped off in Fort Hayes, Columbus, Ohio. And then after that, the evacuation started at Bainbridge and all other parts.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 1996 Densho. All Rights Reserved.