<Begin Segment 42>

TI: Yeah, so this is a question that comes to mind. So if the Japanese Canadians were viewed as a security risk and they were moved off the coast, and yet these were communities not guarded --

HS: They were guarded. There were RCMP people there yet, and you couldn't just, you were not given the opportunity to move out anywhere, you had to, if you were going to go to one camp to another, you had to go to the guardhouse and say, you know, "I'd like go to such and such," and make arrangements. But there's no, no way for you to go to any of these places except by walking. You had no cars, no, they confiscated all the bicycles, everything, so there was no bicycles. 'Cause we had all, you wouldn't carry a bicycle to, to the camp. It was just too much weight. And there was no way of getting from one place to another except they had to have trucks for moving people. Of course, those trucks were continually bringing, bringing new people in, so the trucks were, yes, these people would have to go from one camp to another.

TI: So are you saying that, so they didn't really need fences because --

HS: They didn't need, yeah.

TI: Because it was so remote...

HS: Isolated, yes.

TI: ...so isolated and remote that there was no place to go.

HS: No place to go. There was one road in and one road out, and there was no (transportation), and even if you did go out, where would you go? You were way in the interior of B.C., we were at least, oh, 300, 400 miles from the West Coast by them. But on top of that, you were a visible minority. If you showed up at some town, they'd know right away you, there was something (wrong), "How come you're here?" sort of idea. There was no way that you could sort of escape from that area in a way, because it was, it was isolated.

<End Segment 42> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.