<Begin Segment 16>

AI: Well, so then as you were getting ready to go, and all the Japanese American families had to leave, on that day itself, how were you actually taken out of the valley? Where did you all go?

BS: We, we went to the train station, to the Hood River train station. And then we boarded the train and then we had, of course you see all the soldiers and that. And then we had to keep our, the shades, shades down. And I don't know if it was down all the time or when we were gonna go through a town, we had to keep it down. But my sister, who was married in March, she and her husband must have heard reports of us going through, the train was gonna go through where they lived, in Brooks, near Salem. And so when we went by there, there were all these Japanese Americans standing along the railroad tracks. And so we were able to see my sister and her husband. They were standing on the railroad tracks. But they, so we were sent to Pinedale, which is right outside of Fresno. And they, they went directly, my sister and her husband and his family went directly to Tule Lake. They didn't go to an assembly center. So they went to Tule Lake before we got there.

AI: So what was going through your mind as you were on this train trip and, and then you saw your sister?

BS: Yeah, well, I, well I, to me, like I said, I was happy that our family was together and that we weren't separated from my parents, so it was like an adventure. Me being the kid, right, a kid, and being protected by my older siblings, it was something different 'cause I was getting to ride on a train, and the train was nice and we ate in the dining room and that. And, but I know I saw the porters. They would look at us kind of inquisitively or look at us like, oh, that we're different and that, but, but it was just that we were a family, so... and then I would see our friends on the train, too, our Japanese community friends.

AI: Right, because you were all on the same train.

BS: Uh-huh, uh-huh.

AI: And did it, what went through your mind when you were noticing the guards that were there, that were guarding you on the train?

BS: Well, it was just... that, well I, I knew that there was something wrong because they had guns and they're guarding us and that, so... but I just felt that I was with my parents and my siblings, so...

AI: I wonder if it, did it go through your mind that maybe your family had done something wrong or there was something wrong with you because there were these guards with guns?

BS: Yes, yes, yes, because otherwise they wouldn't have guards on a regular train.

AI: So even as a young child you had that sense?

BS: Uh-huh, uh-huh.

AI: Well, the trip from Hood River down to Pinedale, that's a, quite of a long trip.

BS: Yeah, I really don't know how long it took, but it was, but it was coach and, I don't know how long it took, could be a day and a, could be a day and a half, or maybe longer, maybe one night. I assume it was one night.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.