<Begin Segment 14>

AI: Can you tell us about that day that you left, what it was like?

SH: Yes. You know, we were given orders to be at a certain spot, which was a railroad siting, right close to what is Kirkland today. All the people in the Bellevue Japanese community were to assemble there with... we were allowed a suitcase apiece and one duffel bag per family for bedding. They said to have your bedding, blankets and pillows, but family of five, four or five, you couldn't get it all in one duffel bag, but that's what we were limited to. But I remember carrying a small, what would be today an overnight case. And that's all we left home with. And at a given time, they all, I don't think anybody failed to appear at that point, that place in Bellevue. At least if they did, I never heard about it. I've heard of places that somebody didn't go, stayed behind. And, it was an old train and it... traveled by night. During the day we're out, side-tracked where the main line, passenger lines, freight line, traveled during the night most of the time. With the blinds drawn, we couldn't see out, and I'd look and peek once in a while. But, old train just... took us four days, from Bellevue to Pinedale. Four nights, four days, because of stopping, during the half of the time we were stopped, half of the time we was going.

AI: So on that day, you had to just pack a few things, you had a few things packed, and you had to leave everything else.

SH: Yeah, just, if you didn't have time to dispose of it, you just had to leave it behind. I left everything behind, household goods, such as they were. At that time they were nothing fancy, but I mean, chairs, tables, beds, kitchen utensils, stoves... left everything. And when I came back, it was all gone... it wasn't gone, but there was a man in there that leased the farm, which was all right in my case, I was leasing it too, I didn't own it. But I said, "I came for my stuff that I left behind." And a lot of it I had under lock and key -- tools. He says, "You can't take that." He says, "It's mine." He said, "I bought it from the government." I said, "Who'd you buy it from?" "From the government." I said, "The government didn't own it, it's mine." So he goes back into the house and he comes back out with a long list of stuff that he bought, and it's a government bill of sale on there, marked "paid in full." So he said, "You can't touch it." I wasn't able to touch it, I never got paid for it. I probably could have sued the government, but I wouldn't have gotten any more out of it, it wouldn't have gotten anything, it wouldn't be ahead anything anyway. It probably would have cost more than what it was worth, to hire a lawyer and all this stuff. That happened to, a lot of cases, I don't think it happened to all... some were more fortunate. But this party that took over my place... I went back as soon as we were allowed, and that's what happened in my case. So I just gave up... and that is why I settled in Idaho.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.