<Begin Segment 22>

AI: What did you and your family do to get ready, knowing that your turn was coming?

GY: We had a house rented in Boyle Heights. We had a piano, maybe the old washing machine in the back, some worn-out furniture, a rug that probably had a hole in the, in the side, raggedy old rug. What else did we have? Well, clothes that we wore, some utensils, some, nice set of dishes, one set of dishes. We didn't have too much because we had to move from Seattle. So there was not a storage of memories or materials in Los Angeles at that time. So it wasn't too hard.

What we did was we had some Japanese records like the Waseda University or some children's songs and Japanese records. Again, we did not want to be associated as being Japanese. Oh, no, it's bad. Enemy. So we destroyed records as many families did, and whatever personal things that we couldn't take we just burned or whatever. I remember families, non-Japanese people come to see what we would, we could sell. The piano went for ten or fifteen dollars, whatever it was. That was about the only thing that we sold that was worthwhile. The other stuff was stored. A few things were stored including these photographs, fortunately. And they were stored at, in large trunks at the Union Church in downtown Los Angeles, I think. We were members of that church. So that was that. Now, one thing I kept, which I took to camp for my personal use, was a record carrying case of LP -- not LP but the 78 rpm records of my favorite pop music -- Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey stuff. Carried them to camp besides another suitcase with spare pants, suits, whatever, shirts. And my sister was very much upset because I took these records, and, "Hey, you're supposed to carry other things. What's the matter with you, George?" Well, she was sort of, she was sort of the, what's the word I want? I was just the -- standing back and -- and she'd take care of the, kind of the family. Other business of family. But she was very much upset about that, but I could not bear leaving my records behind. So I went --

AI: Where were you taken? You and your family, where were you taken?

GY: Oh, we went directly to Poston, Arizona, which is the southwestern part of Arizona. There were three camps: Camps 1, 2 and 3. First camp with about 10,000, and 5,000 in each of the other camps. And it's one of the larger camps, but there was little need to move from camp to camp, back and forth. So it was Poston Camp 1. And we took the train probably from station -- near downtown, near Japantown, as a matter of fact, was the Santa Fe Station, that area. And probably we were taken by buses down to that station, and all of our belongings were piled high near where we lived, I suppose, and the trucks took that baggage down there. It all had labels, family number and so forth. And I don't recall -- it's really interesting that I cannot recall getting from the house to the station or even getting on the station and the train, I should say, and on the way to -- I cannot recall. And many of my friends do recall that part of the trip. And I can't recall. I'm sure it was hard. Well, anyway, that's where we were, in Poston, Arizona.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.