<Begin Segment 12>

TI: Okay Ted, so we're gonna get started. We left off when you had just left Bainbridge Island on the ferry and then had gone to the train, so let's pick it up there. Any, so tell me about the train ride from Seattle down to California. What was that like?

TK: It was one of the most comfortable train rides I've ever been on. And at that time I thought it was a good adventure because that was something completely new, and we had all the fine services with a dinner in the dining cars with tablecloth, and we had the black porters serving us with, I guess it must've been the regular Pullman food.

TI: So on this train, were the Bainbridge Island, the Japanese Americans from Bainbridge Island, were you the only ones on the train or were there other passengers also?

TK: I'm almost sure that we were the only ones on the train.

TI: Okay, but it was just like, it sounded like just a regular train, regular service with a dining car, dining service.

TK: Everything, yeah. I'm almost sure it was just a regular Pullman train that was chartered by the government.

TI: With perhaps the only difference being you had guards.

TK: We had guards, and then every time that we came to a city we had to pull the shades. And then every time another train wanted to go by we had to sit on the side and wait for it, so that's why it took us two days to get to Manzanar, which at that time, I guess, it didn't matter.

TI: So tell me about the, first the guards. What kind of treatment did you get from the guards? Were they the same guards that picked you up at Bainbridge Island, or were these different guards?

TK: I'm not sure because a soldier in uniform's a soldier in uniform. I think they were the same ones, but I'm not sure.

TI: And so maybe an example is, so when you approached a town and you had to pull the blinds down, how did they do that? Who told you to do that and how did they do it?

TK: I think the soldiers must've came through and told us to pull the shades, and I think the soldiers were walking up and down the aisles anyway, I think, but I don't remember.

TI: And were the soldiers stern or were they nice, or how would you describe the soldiers?

TK: I would describe the soldiers as being pretty courteous, and they were mostly fairly young and I think that most of 'em were from the, I guess they were from the East Coast, so they didn't know too much about us and they didn't have any opinion.

TI: So talk about the dining car. You mentioned the, before we started, just the food was really good, so say it's dinner time, what would you do? I mean, where would you go and how were you served?

TK: I don't remember the details, but I'm pretty sure that we were served like a regular dinner, and we had the main meal and then they'd bring us our drinks, and then after that we'd get dessert.

TI: But they had the use of tablecloths.

TK: Tablecloth, yeah. I remember that.

TI: And silverware and all that?

TK: Silverware, yeah.

TI: Cloth napkins?

TK: Cloth napkins, yeah.

TI: So it was kind of like, given your background, going to a Chinese restaurant in the International District was like a big treat, this was like to a fine restaurant for you.

TK: Yeah. And then at night they had the bunks so that we could, I think I slept on the upper bunk, but we had a place to sleep and with all the, with more than the comforts of home.

TI: And going back to the dinner, what were they, do you remember what you ate?

TK: No, I don't.

TI: But it was, but you just mentioned it was really good.

TK: Yeah.

TI: And then you had, so you had, like the Pullman, the sleeper car that you could sleep in.

TK: Sleeper car, right.

TI: So for you this was kind of like an adventure. You were, how old, eleven years old?

TK: Eleven, yeah.

TI: Eleven years old, and so this was kind of --

TK: It was an adventure, yeah.

TI: And were there other boys your age that you could explore the car, the train with?

TK: I don't remember. I'm sure that there were, but I don't remember walking around the train that much.

TI: Now was this the first time you had been away from the Bainbridge Island, Seattle area, or had you traveled before outside the area?

TK: I think I traveled once by train to, from Seattle to Tacoma, but I don't remember that trip.

TI: Okay, so now as you start leaving the Northwest, which tends to be more mild and lots of moisture, and you're now going down to California, southern Oregon and California, what did you think? What did you notice as things got, probably, drier and different?

TK: Riding on the train I don't think I noticed anything different.

TI: Okay. So any other stories about the train that you remember?

TK: Only thing is, I guess like an eleven year old kid, when it was April 1st I thought somebody was gonna say, "April fool, and you go back." [Laughs] But I don't think, that never happened.

TI: So you thought, you thought you'd say it, did you say it?

TK: No, no.

TI: You just thought that.

TK: I just thought that, yeah.

TI: That it'd be kind of an April Fool's joke.

TK: April Fool's joke, yeah.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.