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SY: So can you go back and give us some of your earliest memories as a young boy?

GN: Well, I don't remember, but my mom always used to say I used to raise a big ruckus on the church bus, the Nishi Hongwanji bus that used to pick me up to go to Sunday school at Nishi Hongwanji in Little Tokyo, and so the bus driver had to talk to my mother from time to time about my bad behavior on the bus. But I don't remember those things. But I do remember going to Santa Anita, and what I remember was we gathered at this large parking lot and there were buses and motorcycle police there, and then we went as a convoy to Santa Anita, and I remember that particular event probably because it was so unusual that it just stuck with me.

SY: Right.

GN: 'Cause I can't, I don't remember going to school. But anyway, and I don't know where this parking lot was, but the uptown group of people had a reunion, and it was advertised in the Rafu, so I attended that, and they had this copy of this form that was passed out for evacuation and it showed the people who resided within a certain boundary had to report to this particular address. Well, that address is St. Mary's Episcopal Church. And they don't even need the address; if they just named the church people would've probably known, knew where to go, but the federal government probably didn't want to put a church name on there for people to gather to get incarcerated.

SY: Right, right. So that's interesting, so you have that flash memory of being on, gathering up and going on this bus. Do you have any, your family originally went to an assembly center?

GN: Santa Anita.

SY: And do you have any memories of that?

GN: I remember having a different color badge, depending on what time you're, you get to go to the mess hall to eat. That I remember. I remember the last few days before we left camp that there were a lot of empty barracks. Well, one of the things that, we got to live in a barrack instead of the horse stalls that people who went there earlier had to live. But I remember my sister and I were climbing on top of the cots that were leaning against the wall inside of the barracks, and in her case, she fell backward and hit her head and had a concussion, and so they had to send her to the hospital in, what's the name of the hospital near, in Boyle Heights?

SY: The Japanese --

GN: It was a general hospital there. That's where she ended up, and so we weren't able to go to the camp right away. I guess she was in the hospital for about a week and finally, by train, we went to Jerome, Arkansas.

SY: So you were among the last families to leave.

GN: Yes.

SY: And do you remember going on the train at all?

GN: Oh yeah, we do.

SY: And you, were there others on the train with you, or was it pretty much cleared out by then?

GN: We were pretty much, it was pretty much alone. We, I remember the MP would be walking back and forth, at least in our cab. That was, I guess, part of their duty, to watch us.

SY: Wow. And so how, so this is all from memory, then, this whole, your sister getting hurt and then the not being in the horse stalls.

GN: Yes.

SY: Did you, did you at the time realize that you weren't being put in horse stalls, or was that sort of later?

GN: I, that was sort of later when people would talk about it in Tule Lake, because there were friends that ended up in the horse stall and they would talk about living in there.

SY: And you were, by this time you were age seven.

GN: Yes.

SY: So yeah, that's pretty good memory. But before I forget, though, you are the oldest of...

GN: Of four in the family.

SY: Four, and so can you sort of give us a little bit of description? I guess you and your sister were the, were the people that went to camp at first.

GN: Correct. And then my brother Tosh was born in Tule Lake, and then my brother Roy was born after camp.

SY: Okay, and your sister's name was?

GN: Shigeko.

SY: Shigeko. So you were how many years apart with your sister?

GN: She was born in 1938, so three years.

SY: Three years. So you were definitely the one, the oldest. Did you feel that sort of strain in life of being the eldest child?

GN: I did, yes.

SY: So you had more responsibility over...

GN: Well, not only that, but when I got into confrontation I had to defend myself. I couldn't go to somebody older, and I always wish I had an older brother or older cousin or somebody that I could go to, but that was not the case.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.