<Begin Segment 8>

TI: So, Kiyo, we're going to start up again. Before we go to Tanforan, your father was working for the Santa Fe Railroad. Was his job impacted at all after the bombing of Pearl Harbor?

KY: Yes, I can't remember whether they made him stop working. I can't remember, or he just stopped when we were ordered to move. I think that's more like what it was but there was no way that he could return to that job with the railroad.

TI: Okay, because I was wondering, because there was... I've read about how some of the railroads fired all their Japanese workers. I think their thinking was that, well, the railroads are such a key transportation and so they fired all Japanese workers.

KY: I think that's probably what it was because he couldn't go back or he lost his job.

TI: Okay, so where we left off in terms of your life was so you're in Berkeley, you're commuting back and forth to go to high school in Richmond but then you get the orders that you have to leave the area. And so let's talk about that, you mentioned Tanforan earlier. So how did you get to Tanforan?

KY: Well, I think we were all ordered to be at a certain place and I think we boarded a bus and we were transported to Tanforan. We didn't know where we were going.

TI: And so what were your impressions of Tanforan? I'm thinking here you were pretty much in Richmond around mostly white people and then now you go to Tanforan and what was that like?

KY: It's interesting that you bring that subject up because it impacted me because I had never seen so... we used to go to the Buddhist church for special ceremonies and I would see groups of Japanese. But I had never seen so many Japanese, it really did impact on me. And it took a while for me to get used to it and it was, I think for me, somewhat uncomfortable. And I've always felt it's taken a while for me to get comfortable being in a Japanese group. It's taken many years to feel comfortable and... because I grew up in a white community.

TI: And what was it about going from a white community to one that was in this case all Japanese and Japanese Americans? What made you uncomfortable? Can you kind of articulate that?

KY: Maybe it was because with the non-white groups... I guess with the Japanese group you felt more intensity of relationships and you found that you had... the Japanese culture there are a lot of subtleties that you have to be aware of. And you're not always so sure that you could be free in expressing how you really felt, and I guess I have always felt that you should feel free, but there was a confining feeling.

TI: So that discomfort was more like all of sudden, for lack of better words, there was like a set of different rules almost.

KY: Yeah, and I didn't know the rules that well. Yes, exactly.

TI: What about just Tanforan in terms of the facility, what were your impressions of that?

KY: Well, I was one of those people that went early, our family was early to be sent to Tanforan so we lived in a horse stall. Since there were four of us, the back stall became where we slept and the front part of the stall became your living quarters. But we lived in those stalls that they had painted over and it was open at the top and you could hear everything.

TI: So you could hear everything, obvious horse stalls, how about the smells? Do you remember the smells?

KY: The smell, there was but it wasn't overpowering I think they did a fairly good job so you were not affected by it.

TI: Now as a young woman, how about, it sounds like there wasn't much privacy.

KY: There wasn't, you're right. As you know, these camps is public, everybody uses the latrine and washing. There wasn't any.

TI: Any incidents or memories about Tanforan that really stand out for you?

KY: No, there wasn't anything in particular.

TI: So how about the food, do you remember the food?

KY: I don't remember so much of the food. It wasn't real real bad, it's the standing in line that really stands out. You had to stand in line for everything.

TI: How about people getting frustrated? Did you ever see other people just kind of blow up or get angry or get frustrated or crying, things like that?

KY: No, I can't say that I... I'm sure a lot of people did but I don't remember anything standing out for me.

TI: How about the time you spent there? How did you spend your time when you were at Tanforan?

KY: We were there from April to September and I had not... well, no, I didn't have a job so I didn't work. I can't remember, I really can't remember what I did while I was at assembly center.

TI: So you're there through, I mean, through September and then where did you go?

KY: Then I went to Tanforan, I mean, to Topaz, Utah.

TI: And why don't you describe the journey from Tanforan to Topaz, what you can remember.

KY: Well, as you know you've heard this over and over again that we, all of us, didn't know where we were going. And we couldn't look outside so there was these anxious feelings, and I think we didn't have any incidents, we just sort of just did what we were told. And the trip went smoothly but all of us you could sense where are we going kind of feeling. But I can't remember anything that stood out.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.