Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Bacon Sakatani Interview
Narrator: Bacon Sakatani
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Los Angeles, California
Date: August 31, 2010
Densho ID: denshovh-sbacon-01-0013

<Begin Segment 13>

TI: So around August 1942, after several months at Pomona, you then are moved to another camp. So why don't you talk about the journey, from leaving Pomona and what that was like?

BS: Well, we boarded this train at Pomona and we headed south toward the desert. I, just by reading the signs as we went through various towns, so we went south from Pomona into Arizona and into Texas for a little bit, and then I remember going through the hills of New Mexico to Colorado into Wyoming, through this beautiful place called Wind River Canyon, then we came to Wyoming. I think at one of the stops at Colorado there were groups of Japanese there greeting us, and I don't know how they found out, but they were there, a group of them. And then one thing that I do remember about that train ride is the MP came around and told us to pull the blinds down whenever we passed through a town or passed an oncoming train. I guess they didn't want people to see trainloads of Japanese in them.

TI: Any other memories on this, on this trip?

BS: No, just watching the sceneries.

TI: So I noticed by the, the date and when you were born, you turned thirteen about this time.

BS: Oh yeah, right. I became thirteen on that trip.

TI: So you became a teenager on, on this trip. How did you celebrate turning thirteen?

BS: We don't celebrate too much on our birthdays, so it was just another day.

TI: Did anybody at least say "happy birthday" to you?

BS: I don't remember that.

TI: Do, did you remember? Did you know that you turned thirteen?

BS: Yes, I did.

TI: Any, any memories of what you thought when you were turning thirteen about what was happening or any, any thoughts?

BS: No. It was, well, it was getting exciting, this train ride, going through all these places I never been to. It was a good occasion like, because I was not charged with a crime, I'm just tagging along.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.