<Begin Segment 26>

TI: And how about the rest of the community? What were they doing in terms of storing stuff?

HS: They did the same, basically the same thing. They took what they felt was most important, and then they had to store whatever else that, whatever else they had in, either with, to neighbors, some of them gave 'em to neighbors, some of them gave to, to, put it into storage areas that they, now, that would be garages and things that they could put, put their stuff in. They couldn't, for instance, the first thing they did was in January, we were told that we couldn't have any cars, any radios, it was forbidden for Japanese people to have cars, radios, and firearms.

TI: Now, why cars? I understand the firearms and the...

HS: I don't, well, I don't understand that either, but they decided that that was... and boats, of course. That came into that whole line of the idea that they didn't want, they wanted to take us out of the business of... so there was a lot of economics involved. They wanted --

TI: And especially for the people who were doing the farming.

HS: Farming, that's right.

TI: I imagine without, without transportation.

HS: Without trucks, that would, that would pretty well knock out your market gardening. See, there was a, it was, decisions were being made in the cabinet, and you can just imagine these guys sitting around and they say, "Well, if we're gonna take 'em out, if they're at war, they're the enemy, they shouldn't be allowed to have cars." And they debate that for a while, and, "Why?" "Well, because they could use them as ways of getting information to the Japanese, they could be spies." Boats, especially the boats was the idea that they would be spies. They knew the coastline, and they would be spies for the Japanese navy. And in fact, they began accusing a number of people saying they were actually secretly members of the Japanese navy that were here in Canada. It never, none of this, of course, was true.

TI: Yeah, these were just kind of the wild rumors that...

HS: Wild rumors that they would, people would bring out, and as a result, people believed them.

TI: Now, while you were packing, was it told to you where you were gonna go?

HS: No, we had no idea what was gonna -- see, the whole thing was, Order in Council, if you understand what these guys do, they make a decision that they're gonna take 'em out, how do you get rid of the Japanese from the West Coast? They're potential saboteurs. They're also the enemy. They're also, possibly can blow up our installations, they could, they could spy, they could be spies. What do you do? Well, what you say is, "Okay, all of them, anybody of Japanese ancestry has to be taken away from the West Coast at least one hundred miles from the, the West Coast area." So that will negate all attempts of these people to become a threat to the welfare of the country, sort of thing. Okay, so they say, "Fine, we'll do that." They put out the proclamation, they told the Mounties, "This is what has to happen, look after it."

TI: So the Mounties just had to figure this out.

HS: The Mounties have to figure it out. How do they do it, well, they make proclamations, and they tell to, they talk to Tom Shoyama, "Get this out in the newspapers," they put, they put proclamations up all over, signs, proclamations that go all over the place and stack 'em up. First the men, they said that the men were the most important, men are "enemy aliens." Men over eighteen, people over eighteen, men, are potential, these are the ones that you have to get rid of first. So they round 'em up and took them to, take 'em to, "Well, we're gonna take them into work camps," that they can help build the roads in B.C.

TI: So they --

HS: But you got to get 'em out of the West Coast.

TI: So this kind of first wave was of the men.

HS: First wave of removal.

TI: And this was in March?

HS: This was, no, that was earlier, it was in, probably by February or early, by February or early March.

TI: So that was your father, then?

HS: My father didn't, no, he was, he was considered too old. He didn't go right away there. He didn't go until just before we left, but he had gone. They rounded up people, and they said they had to go. So he went to a work camp, too. And at that time, there was a whole group of young Niseis. You know, they were eighteen, and they'd be in eighteen to their twenties, that were actually to put -- where would they go? Well, the first thing they had to do was put them someplace that they could then, they had to take 'em from one spot, a manning depot as they would consider it, like taking everybody to one spot, and then there, they were ready to go on trains and go east to the work camps. They were in, put into, housed in Vancouver, in the immigration building in Vancouver, and they, they bolted the doors, or they somehow got over there and they, they put barriers on the doors and whatnot, and they, they said, "We're not going to whatever you say, because we're Canadians. We were born in Canada."

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.