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TI: Okay. So, so let's go to Topaz, and what were some of the, your first impressions of Topaz?

RE: Well, we arrived there in very, I think it was overnight and it was morning if I recollect. Of course, we're transported again in these military trucks with a canvas cover on it. And it was just horrible. It was in the middle of the desert, it was worse than Clovis, New Mexico, you know. [Laughs] But yeah, we saw the military guards there and all kinds of things, barbed wire fence, and we said, "What is this?" Then we saw all these barracks, and it was unbelievable, and what a sight to behold. One after another, they all looked alike. And they kept, we were there for about a few hours, three, four hours. And then, and if all the paperwork was done, we were, now went to Block 42 that was on the far end. That was the last, last of the blocks that would be build there to accommodate us, and that's where we ended up, yeah, in the far corner of Topaz.

TI: And when you got into camp, what did you see?

RE: Well, you know, it was bitterly cold, it was just awful. And we, it was enough to try to keep us warm. But fortunately, we had warm clothing, because that's how we left New Mexico, with warm clothing. But it was the whole idea, we had never seen so many Asian faces in our lives. I mean, it was just overwhelming. I think when we were fed lunch, lunch at that time, I think every eyes were fixated on us, you know. That the word got around that here we came from the Southwest, and so we were oddballs, that we were not from the West Coast. So people stayed away from us pretty much, we were sort of isolated from the fact that nobody wanted to talk to us.

TI: And so that's, again, that seems a little unusual. So no one actually came up and just asked you a few questions like, "Where are you from?"

RE: When they heard us talk, especially my older brothers and sisters talking with a Southern accent, we became a novelty, there was no doubt about that. And we were treated as oddballs in that, in that camp.

TI: Well, one of the reasons you chose Topaz was your brother.

RE: My brother.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.