Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Frank Kitamoto Interview
Narrator: Frank Kitamoto
Interviewer: Lori Hoshino
Location: Bainbridge Island, Washington
Date: April 13, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-kfrank-01-0009

<Begin Segment 9>

LH: Frank, the day that Bainbridge Island was evacuated of all the Japanese, I know you were only two years old and so what memories you have, might, well, what you know of that day might be hearsay. What have you heard about that day?

FK: I know, (Now) I go out to the schools sometimes and Walt Woodward, who was the editor of The Review at that time, was gracious enough to go with me to some of the things. And he's, one of the things (I cherish). I remember him saying that this Army unit from New Jersey that had come to take us away, to escort us off the Island with the fixed bayonets and so forth, he said that first of all they talked really funny. They had this accent, which is kind of ironic when you think about (it). People could think we had accents. But he said by end, by the end of the time when they were marching us down from the dock to the ferry, he said most of the soldiers were crying... that they had tears in their eyes, and they were carrying kids. You can tell from the pictures they were carrying kids, because a lot of the mothers didn't have fathers, their husbands with them, they were actually carrying the luggage and stuff for the kids down there. And some of the people who were in their early twenties and late teens at that time said that the soldiers actually, all the way down to California, actually led the group on the train in songs. They would...

LH: Is that right?

FK: They would sing songs all the way down there. And I think when the train dropped us off, I think (we) ended up in Lone Pine, somewhere around there. And then they caught buses to Manzanar. She said that the group on the train actually took the time and stopped and (turned around) to thank the soldiers for, for bringing us down there and, and escorting us. I know some people on the Island actually, some of the women on from the Island actually corresponded with the soldiers for quite a while afterwards. Wrote letters back and forth.

LH: That's incredible.

FK: And I, and I think it was a real hard time for the adults, but at the same time... it was, it was a time when they really pulled together. It's interesting because people always say, why didn't you protest, why didn't you say you wouldn't go and that kind of stuff. And the times were a little different in those days. I think in a lot of ways, if they protested, it might have been worse because it wasn't, the awareness isn't like it (is) now. You didn't have television that would beam us across the world, or even to the rest of the nation, as far as what was going on. And it was really easy for things to happen to you and for people not to be aware of it. In fact, I think a lot of people back east never knew this even happened. But...

LH: Can I back up a little bit Frank?

FK: Yeah.

LH: If I can set the scene. This is a group of a little over 200 people...

FK: Right.

LH: ...from Bainbridge Island...

FK: Right.

LH: ...and it's an island community thirty minutes away by ferry from Seattle.

FK: Right.

LH: The men have been taken away, a, a good deal...

FK: Some of them, right. [Narr. note: 31 out of 45 families]

LH: ...of the husbands have been taken away, so what you have left on the Island are maybe some older Japanese and some families...

FK: Yeah, yeah.

LH: ...wives and children...

FK: Right, yeah.

LH: ...and are they in the position really, to do any protesting?

FK: The, the people that were left were probably the Niseis, because if you were a citizen they probably didn't take you away first. So it became -- the Niseis responsibilities to make decisions because a lot of the Isseis weren't there. I know they even tried to (find) a farm to take all of us.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.