Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Lillian Nakano Interview
Narrator: Lillian Nakano
Interviewer: Megan Asaka
Location: Torrance, California
Date: July 8, 2009
Densho ID: denshovh-nlillian-01-0008

<Begin Segment 8>

MA: So what about that sort of journey across the Pacific and then arriving on the mainland?

LN: Yeah. Well, for us, I'm sure, for my mother -- I mean, for my parents, a lot of it was, a lot of it was like, full of apprehension and everything. But for us, we were just having fun on a ship with our friends, making all these new friends, people from the other islands all came together, to get us out there. And so it was just a lot of newness, and just a lot of excitement. [Laughs]

MA: And then when you, I guess, probably arrived in San Francisco and then took a train to, eventually to Jerome.

LN: Uh-huh. Yeah, that was not too good. We thought that... I thought for the older kids, see, at that time, we were still like fourteen, thirteen, fourteen, around there. But I noticed that the older kids like eighteen and so forth, they had a lot more freedom and they were, they were enjoying it. They got together with friends, they would be singing Hawaiian songs and things like that. So I think, depending on your age, we were still more, somewhat attached to the parents yet. So we thought it was no fun, you know.

MA: And then when you arrived at Jerome, I guess, what were you expecting? I mean, what were you expecting, and then to see that you were kind of going to be imprisoned, basically, with guards and barbed wire? Do you remember that initial impression?

LN: Yeah, the initial impression was... how would you say it? It's more like you're totally mystified. You're completely in the dark about what's going on, and you're just, as you come upon it, like the first thing, we got off the train, then we were in a truck, and they were going to take us right into camp and all that. So it's like, okay, what's next? It was just that way. Every step of the way it was a total mystery. But I guess as long as you're together with your family, you feel pretty secure. So my parents kept saying, "Don't worry about anything. We're right here." So, yeah, that's how it was.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.