<Begin Segment 8>

BH: So it was in May of 1942 that you were moved to the concentration camps.

KH: Uh-huh.

BH: You were moved to the Puyallup Fairground?

KH: Yes.

BH: You were a senior in high school, and you were scheduled to graduate in June.

KH: Uh-huh.

BH: So can you tell me about that experience? Can you tell me about the move, for starters?

KH: Well, we were all, I don't know how we got to the International District, but then there were buses waiting to take us to the Puyallup Fairgrounds. And everything was loaded, and there were military soldiers standing around, I remember that. And there were some Caucasians who were there to see their friends off. We didn't, I didn't have anybody come to see us off at that time. But then once we got into camp, and then I got to know some of the other people who went to Franklin High School, Garfield High School, then I didn't know them. Because being in the Maryknoll community, our activities were up at Maryknoll and not in the International District. In the International District, maybe they had Bukkyokai or they had other church, church groups. I think the Baptist church had a very active Japanese group. They even had a Boy Scout group. Maryknoll had a Boy Scout group, but then they stayed within themselves.

BH: And you were put on buses to go to the camps. Can you tell me about the bus ride over to Puyallup?

KH: It's not a long ride. I think for us it's an adventure because most of us didn't ride, ride a big bus like that. It was army buses, the army color.

BH: So at the time, though, did you have an understanding of what might be happening to you?

KH: No, we didn't know what was happening.

BH: And what about your parents?

KH: They went along with it. We were just given one little room, one section of a barrack, there was eight of us, so we had beds just crammed tight. There was no room to walk in between, we'd have to sort of walk over the beds to get to your bed. I remember that. Then we had one little area that we, my mother and father, so that we can sit and talk, visit. And you can hear what's going on next door. We had, one of the Beppu boys, he and his wife, Teru Beppu, lived next door to us, and Teru is well-known in the Seattle community.

BH: And so these accommodations, you weren't at all accustomed to anything like this?

KH: Oh, no, this is the whole family in one little room.

BH: So did it come as a shock to you when you arrived at the Puyallup Fairgrounds?

KH: That was, you know, clothing, changing clothes, and if you had to go to the bathroom we had to go to a central area to go to the bathroom. Wash clothes and brush your teeth and face, then we went to the central mess hall. But Ish and I, I remember, got jobs working as waitresses in the mess halls. We'd walk around with milk or water. It was just wooden tables and wooden benches.

BH: So do you have any fond or positive memories from the Puyallup Assembly Center?

KH: From being put into a situation like that? Gosh, it is an experience, but then, you know, you take it in stride as it happens. And you do hear rumors, and I, I remember one time when my mother had to take all her scissors and her knives, kitchen knives, and put, line them up outside on the ground by the bunk, and a soldier came by and checked them out. Says, "What's that for?" [Laughs]

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.