<Begin Segment 37>

SN: And you also made a reference to, it sounds like it was a very quick process that the executive order came out and then you were forced to be removed to Pinedale? I'd like to get the time periods a little bit more. Between the time you first found out about that you would have to be evacuated, and the time that you had to be ready to go, how much time were you given?

SH: Oh, there was about two months. It wasn't definite. We knew we were gonna have to eventually go. How soon we wasn't, we weren't told. And it actually ended up, a couple of months before the order was, when we were talking about it and when it actually implemented the order. We didn't leave until May, and the story came out first part of the year, right after it started, that we were gonna be leaving the area. And we didn't leave until mid-May, so I'd say it was four, five months. And we thought it might be sooner. Some places were sooner. Some places in California moved a lot sooner than that. But the climate of, between the two, the other, how should I say... there was no outward intention from the Japanese American population in the Seattle area, Western Washington, the mood was little different. The reaction to the coming order, expected order was different in Washington than it was in California. But we knew we would have to go. We knew that it was an executive order, and there was no changing that. So, it was actually worried about how soon. It was lot later than I thought it would be. I thought we would be leaving sooner than we did, after they said they were going to. But everybody went peacefully. I don't recall anybody in Western Washington, Seattle, Tacoma area, Bellevue that did anything, and defied the order. At least if there was one, I never heard about it. There was no such denial. We all went peacefully. And like the JACL tried to tell 'em that, the best way we could've help the war effort was to go peacefully, and don't give the government, the military any trouble. That was being preached. The army and intelligences have acknowledged that helped a lot -- somebody speaking up for them, and saying, "This is, we should help 'em by going and not giving 'em any trouble." Imagine if somebody said, "No, let's not go, we won't be there." And they would have to be looking after us here, and looking after us there. If enough of 'em did that, a few hundred did that, it would have really been chaos, as far as the government and soldiers having to watch us. There were no cases of that. Every single one was there, at a certain time, at their appointed time.

<End Segment 37> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.