<Begin Segment 39>

TI: Okay, so we're starting up again, so we had just finished that really nice story of your dad talking as you're walking down the hill, where he talked about how he came in with one suitcase and was leaving with two. But you're going down to the train station, and so this is kind of interesting because by this time, the Seattle people had already been sent to Puyallup, and so you knew you were there. You were going on a train, so that didn't make sense if you were going to Puyallup, because if you were going to Puyallup, you would just take a bus. It wasn't that far away.

HH: Yes, army bus or something like that.

TI: Right, so you're going down to the train station, and so trains are waiting. So what was that like down at the train station?

HH: Well, by the time we reached the train depot, and then we had to go down into the platform area, which is down, carrying whatever we had. We saw quite a few people already there, Japanese, and they were standing outside with the military police standing there also. But they were not boarding yet because they had, my sister, Yaeko, was one of the persons that she had a certain group to board certain areas in the train.

TI: Oh, so your sister was helping to kind of get people organized?

HH: Yes, she was, yes. So we had to find her, and then she said, "Just stand right here," she was checking off all the ones that are supposed to be in her group. So that's what we did, and then all the time I just saw other people coming, walking down.

TI: So while you were there waiting, what was the mood of the people?

HH: Well, they weren't, looked like, kids, especially, they were running around, and everybody just talking to each other, because some of them probably hadn't seen each other recently. But it was just like normal kind of train ride in a sense, but children especially... but the parents, I know, they were concerned, but I think everybody who were in charge, I think they were worried that they're going to be sure to get everybody on the list so that they'll know that everybody's down there.

TI: In terms of when you visualize what it looked like, what were people wearing as they were getting, waiting for the train to leave?

HH: Well, when we were wearing, actually, people, some of them were wearing suits and whatever because we didn't know where we were going. But then some people were in casual, but we were wearing -- just because it was still cold around April -- but I think it was just the fact that we didn't know where we were going, and just wondering, why are we getting on a train? Because we thought we would go to Puyallup.

TI: Now, while you were waiting on the platform, were there, like, other non-Japanese, Japanese Americans, sort of watching?

HH: Oh, yes. Some of the friends that probably brought the families down, yes, there were some others. They didn't restrict the people, but they weren't together right there, but there were others.

TI: So did you have an opportunity to talk to anyone like that who just came down?

HH: No, because we stayed closer to the train and the area where my sister was, so she had a group of about, I think about ten or twenty, around there, group of people that will go in a certain car.

TI: Okay, so you then get on the train, and the train sort of starts moving. So where did the train go? What do you remember about the train ride?

HH: Well, just before we left, as they started loading up people, especially kids, they would open the window and kind of wave around and talking to people as they're loading up. But the MPs who were standing right next to the cars, trains, so they were, I saw some pictures later in the Tacoma Tribune, I guess, with the MP standing and some of the children would be waving from the windows. But not the Issei or the parents, mostly kids.

TI: And when you mentioned MPs, what did the MPs have? Were they armed, did they have guns or anything?

HH: I can't remember for sure, but they may have had at least maybe a pistol or something. Could be, but I can't, I don't think I saw a bayonet or mounted like that, or anything. But the ones that were closer to the train, especially, but I don't know about the perimeter area.

<End Segment 39> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.