<Begin Segment 59>

AI: Well, so by the time that the actual day of leaving came, you had already gone through quite a bit of this sorting, and this constant packing --

MY: Yeah, right. I think, I think the effect of hearing about, about the Bainbridge Island and the people who were chased out of their homes and forcibly removed, was kind of a signal that we had to get ready. The time was coming for us, although at that moment, we didn't have a, the evacuation order hadn't come yet.

AI: Do you recall when you did get that, see that actual notice, that your area of town was going to have to report and actually leave --

MY: Yeah, I -- that must have been when you -- the evacuation order, I think, came when the specific, the families were ordered to report to, to get your, that was when we got our family number, and we had to register. And, the Japanese American National Museum might have a record of when they -- and then we had to fill out a questionnaire. And we had to fill out -- the questionnaire had something -- and my older brother and I were going through that, and talking about how funny it was, 'cause we lied. "Do you speak Japanese?" "No." Of course we spoke Japanese. "Do you..." [Laughs] They ask all these questions, and then they asked you, "What is your job?" Or I think I put "housekeeper" or "babysitter" or something like that. I mean, the jobs that you had, and educational level, there was that little questionnaire that we filled out. And part of it was, you could tell why we lied, that you didn't speak Japanese, "how long did you go to Japanese school?" The questions was obviously designed to find out how loyal you were to this country. And apparently we were quite aware of that. Either we were told --

TY: See, I don't remember, I don't remember the questionnaire.

MY: You got the, didn't you get it back from, from -- Japanese American National Museum has a copy of --

TY: A copy of the questionnaire?

MY: Yeah.

AI: This may be a questionnaire that you might have filled out in camp, maybe, rather than --

MY: Rather than at that moment, okay.

AI: -- at the registration. The registration questions might have been, some similar, but not as many.

MY: You may, yeah, you may be right about that. Because I had forgotten about that questionnaire, and I thought, and I was wondering, when did we fill that out?

TY: And, then I don't remember when I registered, what was asked, or...

MY: Well of course, because he went by himself. So the rest of us would not have had the questionnaire.

TY: So I'm not sure what kind of form I filled out, or anything about that.

MY: But you --

TY: I wonder if they have samples of stuff like that, someplace? Do they have...?

MY: They must have

AI: Yes, they do, they do.

MY: I'm sure they have it in the National Archives, right?

AI: Yes.

TY: You mean the registration itself?

MY: Uh-huh.

TY: You think so?

MY: I'm sure they do. The, the U.S. government kept some remarkable footage. They, if you go the National Archives, Nellie and I went there to look for -- they kept, every step of the way, the evacuation, all those films, those were all taken by the army. They kept documenting their, their activities.

TY: Well, I did get, looked in my WRA archives, my own record. And I got that. But about the evacuation and registration and stuff, where would you go to get that? I don't know. I'll have to find out, because I'd be curious to see what date it was that we --

MY: You have, you have yours, because I think I sent it to you, right? Your little questionnaire, that...

JY: I don't remember that.

MY: The only person --

JY: Where did you get it?

MY: At the National, Japanese American National Museum.

JY: Oh, really?

TY: It'd just be on there --

JY: I may have it, I just don't know.

MY: Somebody was missing. I think Mike or somebody was missing from that.

TY: You, did you send me mine, too?

MY: I thought I did. I thought I sent it to all of you, when I first went there.

TY: Well, I don't remember. I have to check, check my files.

MY: Maybe, I'll look in my files and see. But we, so that's quite possible that that was filled out in camp, where all the, these inmates, after we got into camp, were told to fill out these questionnaires. But then, so after that, in actual preparation for the removal to Puyallup, that's the part that I really don't remember. How we got to the house with our belongings, and to the place where we boarded the bus. I remember boarding the bus, and I remember leaving, but I don't remember specifically -- the thing is, even at, I was seventeen, eighteen? Eighteen at that time? But I never drove, and I had no sense of geography of any place --

TY: Even now.

MY: That's true. [Laughs] Where things were.

[Interruption]

<End Segment 59> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.