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MA: So, you went to New York.

YA: New York.

MA: And where, actually, did you reunite with your father?

YA: I think it was in the dining room where we ate.

MA: Was this in Ellis Island?

YA: At Ellis Island. And we were separated with my brothers, the men were separated from the women. So my brothers got to see my father first. And then after we finished eating, I remember just running up to my dad and just hugging him.

MA: What did Ellis Island look like when you, when you went in? Can you describe that?

YA: It was... well, we had to sleep in a big room, my mother and I. Just cots lined up. The paint was peeling all over, and it was a dark, miserable place. When we found out that we were not allowed to get on the boat, I remember coming this far and being angry, "I came here to get on this boat." And, but the MPs herded us at the point of bayonets into this big freight elevator, us that were not going, the people who were not permitted to go on the ship. And they herded us and then they took us to Ellis Island. I don't... I think it was on a boat, too. We had to get on a boat to go there, 'cause it is an island. But I remember there were other prisoners there, Japanese soldiers. But they would not reveal to us their names or anything other than that they were Japanese. And the food was terrible. The only good food I remember was a shriveled up orange. I can't remember... it was terrible.

MA: So, just to clarify, so you arrived to Ellis Island and at that point found out you were not gonna go back to Japan. You couldn't get on the ship.

YA: Uh-huh.

MA: So they made you go back to Ellis Island and stay there for how long?

YA: Four days. We were there four days. So in, then during that time, I wrote a long letter to my sister, and some people were going to another camp. They were going back to a WRA camp. I guess they were going back... they were separating from their fathers. I don't know. But, she said she would mail my letter for me after she got to her camp, because I couldn't. So she mailed it for me.

MA: And who was this letter to?

YA: To my sister in, back in Idaho. See, because... and it took maybe a month before she got that letter. So she didn't know that we didn't sail on that ship, on the Gripsholm.

MA: In general, did most of the families that had come from Minidoka with you get on the ship?

YA: Yes. There were just two families that did not get on. I think it was a family from Portland and us.

MA: Do you know at all why you, again, couldn't get on that ship?

YA: Well, I think I found out just several months ago. You know about the Peruvians being kidnapped from Peru? They had used, I think, five or seven hundred of those people in that exchange that we were supposed to go on. See, in the first exchange, they didn't have enough people. And so the U.S. government, in order to have enough bodies to exchange for the next exchange, that's why they collaborated with the Peruvian government. I understand they tried to with the Brazilian government first, but they failed, much to Brazil's credit. So Peru agreed and that's why they used a large amount of those people and that was enough so we didn't have to go.

MA: Oh, I see.

YA: I think that's the reason.

MA: Okay, so they had Japanese Peruvians, who had basically been, I mean, kidnapped, and sent to the U.S. along with some other families that were in WRA camps, to send on this prisoner of war, basically, exchange.

YA: Uh-huh, yeah.

MA: But you... they probably reached some quota or something and you couldn't go.

YA: Uh-huh. So it was a really, a stroke of luck that we were denied repatriation. But, because my father's status is different, he's considered a prisoner of war, so he cannot go to Minidoka with us. But, if you want to stay, stay together, you go to Crystal City. And of course, that's what we did.

MA: So you were able to leave Ellis Island?

YA: Uh-huh.

MA: And was it known that you were only staying in Ellis Island for a short time?

YA: Well, I think during those four days we were there, they were making the arrangements. Because during wartime, trains... to get a seat on a train, it was very difficult. Trains were always full with soldiers and, you know, military personnel. I think they had to... and I remember from the train, when we got to New York, we actually went through Grand Central Station to, to get on the train to go to Texas. They paraded us all through that whole big station with the MP guards with the rifles. They took us to the train.

MA: And it was your family and other families that hadn't made it on.

YA: Families, yes. I think there was twenty-one people total that went to Crystal City.

MA: And you all went together in that one train?

YA: In that... uh-huh, yeah.

MA: Do you know, by any chance, what happened to the Japanese prisoners of war who were in Ellis Island?

YA: I have no idea. I have no idea, but I know there were prisoners of war there. Because my other friend said she talked to them, too.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.