<Begin Segment 22>

MN: So you said in March you got picked up.

RN: Huh?

MN: You said in March you got picked up?

RN: I think it was in March, end of March, 'cause like I say, they were still building the camp and it wasn't that hot yet, so it had to be about April, end of April.

MN: Who picked you up, an army truck?

RN: It wasn't no, I don't know who it was. It was a truck that came and picked us up. It took what we could carry. And all that time we were waiting in our house and my friends from Seattle were staying with us, so we, and they ate with us, and I don't know, we got by. Anyway, they came, finally they come and picked us up. We were the, we were the last Japanese group to leave Boyle Heights, or leave L.A., I would say.

MN: So you were renting your house so you didn't have any furniture to worry about, is that right?

RN: We had very little furniture. A lot of that furniture, it was a family house that we had moved, we were renting, and it had, already had minimal furniture in those days. It had everything. And they, those Mexican families around there, not many then, they came to our door to, if we had anything to sell and I remember, I think we sold them a, some kind of a table, five dollars. But most of that furniture came with the, came with the house, the beds and the great big oak dining room table came with the house. So we had very little furniture, anyway. In fact, you would say no furniture at all.

MN: So what did you bring to camp?

RN: To camp? Nothing. My mother had her sewing machine. We carried it. We carried it down to where we were gonna be picked up, but when we got there we couldn't take it with us 'cause the truck driver says, "No, you can't take nothing that you can't carry." So I don't know what we did with the sewing machine. I don't know what we did with that sewing machine, but outside of that we had nothing. All I had was a suitcase and a duffel bag. That's all I had.

MN: So this truck came and picked you up, and then they take you to the train station. Which train station did they take you to?

RN: I don't know. It was, it was very close by. It was very close by.

MN: Were there other Japanese American families there at the train station?

RN: Far as I know we were the only ones that they were picked up. They were already bunch of 'em in the train, so I don't know where they were picked up, but I know we were the only ones from Boyle Heights. I remember. And they were the ones that, after we got to camp, we got, we lived in the same block and we started talkin' and they were the ones that had small grocery stores, the Mama and Papa stores in Boyle Heights.

MN: What do you remember of the train ride?

RN: What?

MN: What do you remember of the train ride?

RN: I can't remember nothin' but the shades were pulled down. You can't see outside. We don't know where we're goin'. They pull all the shades down, 'til the train stopped then you get out and it's all dusty, we're out in the desert. We don't know, never heard of the place.

MN: How long was the train ride, more than one day?

RN: No, it can't be, about one day because it's Parker, Arizona, which is right across the Colorado River, so I don't think we even spent a night there. 'Cause I know we hit, when we got off the train we had to get on the bus, and the buses, they pulled the shades down. We're out in the desert and they made us pull the shades down, you know? So we got, we got to that place right before dark, I remember.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.