Densho Digital Archive - Takashi Hoshizaki Interview (denshovh-htakashi

<Begin Segment 15>

TI: Okay, Takashi, we're going to start up with your second session, so we were talking about Pomona and the Marshall family coming to visit you, but let's back up a little bit. Let's, let's talk about... why don't we talk about the journey to Pomona? So from the Hollywood area, how did you get to Pomona?

TH: Well, we gathered (...) at the Hollywood Independent Church, which was just about two miles north of where we lived, and then we got on the bus (...). We didn't know where we were going, but then eventually we ended up at the Pomona fairgrounds.

TI: Now when you said you didn't know where you were gonna go, by this time some people had been sent to Manzanar, places like that.

TH: Yes.

TI: So was there a sense of, of where you might be going, like whether it be Manzanar, or you just didn't know where you were gonna go?

TH: Basically, we didn't know. And if we can back up a little bit, it then became a problem of what kind of clothing or, especially what kind of footwear should one be getting. So the word went around that everybody was buying these, I guess they used to call them engineering boots, and so everybody was buying that type of footwear. And then my dad went out and bought canteens, and these were, I guess, half gallon canteens, which, it was like the old miner's type with felt on the outside which you can then wet and it'll cool a bit with metal screw cap tops on there. And so we each had one of the canteens, so the concept (...) was, well, it may come to a point where we need to really move around or so on, so fill that thing up with water and, and it'll boost our survival probability, doing this type of thing. (...) So with that in mind, and also (...) people (...) didn't really know, Manzanar is somewhere up in the Owens Valley was the best that people could determine where the camp was, but other than that we had no idea. We didn't think we were (going to) Manzanar, except that now we suddenly end up in the Pomona fairgrounds.

TI: Going back to what you brought, so your, other than canteens, did your, did your father... I'm curious, what else did your father sort of have you bring with you? Were there other things that he, he thought would be important for you to bring? Like you mentioned the boots, did you buy these engineering boots?

TH: (...) I can't even remember, I doubt if the girls, but the girls probably had something comparable (...) to those boots. Other than that, no, I don't remember what else, (...) did we have some heavy coats? I don't remember and I don't think so, thinking about (it), as we were standing around waiting to be transported.