<Begin Segment 10>

LH: Frank, I know that you were only two years old at the time of the evacuation from Bainbridge Island and so what you know of that day must have been hearsay, but what have you been told about that particular day?

FK: Well some of the things I've been told, some of the things we have gathered from oral histories with people on the Island, and some of the things I've read of newspaper clippings and things. I know the army trucks did come onto the Island and start rounding people up. I think the people either were brought by army trucks, big canvas covered trucks or... in some cases, the men, some of the Filipino men who were working on the farms actually drove us there to the site (at) Eagledale, which is the ferry dock that is across from the Winslow ferry where it is now. Bainbridge used to have two ferry docks at that time, where the ferry actually came into Eagledale and then moved over to Winslow and then moved to Seattle. My understanding is that we were all pretty much there by about 11:00 in the morning and then by 11:20 we had all been marched down to the dock. And there's that picture, the famous scene of being marched down to the dock. And we're all on the ferry by about 11:20. And I know there's a, there's a photo of the Mojis and their dog. Their dog wanted to go too, so he jumped into the truck and I guess the soldiers with some trepidation tried to get him off, and finally the Mojis helped get the dog off.

LH: So they just had, had to leave their pet dog behind.

FK: Yeah, they had to leave the pet with a neighbor... and I guess the dog refused to eat and died within about a month. So, and there's stories of the little girl who wanted to bring her kitten with her and, and (she cried)... of course she couldn't take the kitten, so the soldiers promised that they would get this little kitten on the train too, but of course they couldn't.

LH: Now how were you treated by the soldiers? What do you, as far as what you were told?

FK: My understanding -- also from the, from the people that were interviewed for our project and also for, from Walt Woodward who was the editor of the Bainbridge Review at that time -- was that the, the soldiers who had come from New Jersey, which is a long ways from where we are, were, were, a pretty tough, pretty efficient group. I think they were actually part of the National Guard for New Jersey and talked with funny accents. Which is, which seems kind of ironic when you think of, we're the ones that usually talked with funny accents is what people say. But by the time the day came for taking us down to the ferry dock and everything, most of the soldiers had tears in their eyes or were actually crying. They were carrying suitcases for the mothers, carrying kids. I know that the pictures I have, they were carrying me, so I, I know that, that was what was going on. And they actually, on the train -- I mean, we took two days to get down to Manzanar -- so on the train the soldiers actually led the groups in, in singing. And sang along with us and, and so forth. And that, and when we got to California and we got off the train, the Bainbridge Island people actually paused and stood to thank the soldiers, in mass, for what they had done (for us) and how humane and how caring they were as far as bringing us down there. I'm sure a lot of them probably thought maybe this was something that shouldn't be happening.

And I don't know whether... I know recently the curator at the Bainbridge museum actually contacted one of the solders in one of these pictures we have on the wall because the names are all set down on the newspaper articles. And he was, he said, he was too old, and too old to come over to the Island. We had tried to see if he would come over for Day of Remembrance. And he said he was too ill and too old to come over, but he had some real meaningful memories of what happened. And I think that's an area we have to cover, we have to... and then, I'm sure they're all getting into their seventies and eighties and nineties by now. So hopefully, some day we'll be able to get down there, and interview them and find out what their feelings were about what happened there. I know a lot of the high school classmates, of kids that were in high school, actually came to see us off. There's, again there's some photos that were taken at the time show some high school kids, Caucasian high school kids, saying goodbye to their Japanese friends. Gerald Nakata had said that actually one of his friends actually got on a rowboat in Winslow and rowed across to Eagledale to, to say goodbye to us. And he said a couple of his friends actually took the ferry, the regular ferry before us, since we were on the special ferry, the Kelohken, and got to Seattle so they could try to be there when they, when they, when we got there, to say goodbye to us. And of course, that was pretty tough to do because they marched us right off the ferry, right to the waiting trains on the waterfront and took off right away.

LH: That's incredible.

FK: So, and I think, by, by about quarter to twelve was when we were in Seattle and by maybe a little after twelve we were off. I mean, the train pulled out.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.