<Begin Segment 13>

SS: What happened to your family?

HW: My family was evacuated to Poston, Arizona. And Edith's family was evacuated to...

SS: Tule Lake.

HW: Tule Lake, yeah. By the way of Fresno, California, Pinedale.

SS: What was it like for your family? Could they tell you where they were going?

HW: Well, very poor communication in those days, you know. I didn't know where they were until after they were there, in Poston.

SS: Was that hard for you? Did you worry that something terrible could happen?

HW: Well, I didn't worry about something terrible happening. I think my worries were greater that something terrible would happen to them from people in the community if they were remained there, at home. I think that was a bigger worry, but on the other hand, losing everything you got and to be put in, and being located into a separate area is one thing, but the separate area had barbed wire around it, and guard towers, and machine guns on the guard towers, you know. That was another worry. It's more of a worry than the worry of somebody comin' over and bombin' or firebombing or shooting or otherwise hurting or maiming because there were Japanese in the community. I think it was the worse worry, yeah.

SS: Were they feeling some discrimination by this point, from neighbors?

HW: Well, they, well, very little. Depends on the community. Some communities, if you're in a very rural community you didn't feel so much of it because population was sparse and mostly neighborhood people you knew a long time. But if you were living in a more concentrated area, I think, where the higher population and so forth, then it becomes a problem. You don't know who's gonna firebomb you or whatever, or shoot you, or run you down with a car, whatever.

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