<Begin Segment 11>

DM: So after Puyallup, they sent you to Minidoka. But what do you remember about that, that journey?

AM: Well, we all went by bus back to King Street Station, which was the railroad station in Seattle. We boarded trains in Seattle, that's what I remember. I'm trying to think of, did we go from someplace other than Seattle? No, I don't think so. Most of the trains that I remember were leaving from Seattle, from the King Street Station, which is, for those of you who know, King Street Station is still there. And I remember that... I don't remember the food piece of it because I think we were given sandwiches and things like that to eat, but I remember also that we were, because it was my mother and my sister and my brother and I, we had one set of two benches and we faced each other. The hardest thing was that you could not go to the restroom except in sort of an organized way. You couldn't just pick up and go to the restroom because you had to have an armed guard walking down. And of course the windows were all darkened. And I just remember occasionally thinking about what it was, life was like trying to sleep on those hard benches, it's not plush, and we left, I think it was three nights and two days before we got to Minidoka. Today, you can go from Seattle Minidoka in one day by car.

DM: Did you know where you were heading or had you heard any...

AM: No, we had no idea, no idea. All I know is that the landscape was pretty desolate, what we could peek out underneath the shade, it was getting more and more desolate compared to Seattle.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright ©2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.