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MN: So when you and your brother first went out to Colorado and Kersey did you drive out there or did you go by train?

TY: We went by train.

MN: Did you have any problems on the train ride to Colorado?

TY: We didn't have any train, I mean trouble, going over there, problems or trouble going there, but on the way home we had problems. On the way home, well, after two or three days there we decided to come home to pack up and come back here, so we had our, we had our papers from the district attorney to come back to the West Coast, so we boarded the train in Cheyenne, Denver -- no, Cheyenne. No, Denver, Denver we rode... we got on the train at Greeley and then we went to Cheyenne, then my brother said, "Let's go get something to eat," so I said, "Okay, let's go." So we got off the train and then my brother so happened to look back, and he said, "There's somebody following us," two suited-clothes young men following us. And, "Nobody following you." "Yeah, they're following us. Look at 'em. Look, turn your head and look back." "No, heck no, let's go. I got to go to the bathroom. Let's go." They came in the bathroom, says, "Hey, you guys can't go west. You guys going west?" "Yeah, we're going west." "You guys can't go. You got to stop right here." In the bathroom. "No, let me face, go, let my face my pee pee there," and then, "You guys can't go west." "Yeah, we can." And then I challenged him that we can 'cause I had the paper. I wasn't afraid. So he says, "No, you can't go." Well, we can go. Here, here's a paper here," so he read the paper, says, "Well, okay then. Go ahead." Then we, next stop was Salt Lake, or Ogden. Ogden, yeah, we stopped at Ogden, and then there's another two, two FBIs following us. My brother, "Hey, there's two guys following us again." "Oh, the heck with it, man, we can go west, so we don't, no use worrying about it." So I went to the restroom and the guy comes in the restroom, says, "Hey, you guys, where you guys going?" "We're going west. We're going home." "You can't go west." I said, "Why? Why?" "You got a curfew. You can't go." And we gave 'em a hard time. We argued with 'em for a while, and then finally the train's gonna go, so then train's gonna leave so we just showed 'em the paper and we were able to come home. So that's, they gave us a bad time on the way home, but other than that it was okay. We got home, we packed up our stuff, put 'em in the freight car and...

MN: What did you put on the freight car to Colorado?

TY: We put our clothing and then our bedding and kitchen, kitchen utensils or kitchenware, whatever you call it, and our bedding. My dad just bought a bunch of farm tools, equipment, tractors and all the equipment, all that, so we ordered the boxcar to haul it to Colorado and then we loaded the boxcar with everything that we can, and then we gave 'em a destination, they gave us a bill of lading to the destination, and they said it'll be, your equipment and your freight car will be there in five, five days, so it'll be on a certain place so then you unload it right there, the certain place. I said okay, so then we loaded our truck with the necessities to get over there, gasoline, oil, water, and we prepared ourselves to --

MN: What about, like, your other things like the mochitsuki, mochitsuki? What did you do with those things?

TY: We left 'em over here. And then we made our own mochitsuki usu and the hammer when we got to Colorado and New Year came. See, it was April then, I believe it was April, first of April that we went over there, so we had a mochitsuki over here already. Whether the war was happening or not we had our mochitsuki at home. And it was April that we moved out, then we had mochitsuki year end at the friend's place, I guess, yeah, that friend's place. Then we had a mochitsuki there at the Colorado, and the Colorado neighbor -- there was a Japanese neighbor there, so they were, they invited us to the mochitsuki, so we had it over there. The following year we done it at home.

MN: And then you left your farmland to this Chinese produce man. Did he ever share the profits from the harvest with you?

TY: Little bit. A little bit. He took all the advantage of the price and the volume and the money and everything and just sent peanuts to my dad. But when we came back home he treated us good, so it worked out.

MN: Now, before you left for Colorado, did you meet with your girlfriends?

TY: Oh yeah, I had to say goodbye, right? I wanted to marry her and take her with me, but what are you gonna do, uncertain, right? So you don't want to marry a girl and take her and then let her starve over there, so I didn't ask me to marry me or anything, but I really wanted to. But she was forced to marry somebody else. When she told me that, "Oh my god, my dad wanted to me to marry that guy and I married him."

MN: Did any of your hakujin friends come up, come to see you off?

TY: Not really, 'cause we just took off. My hakujin friends, "Come stay with us, stay with us. Live with us, live with us." What are you gonna do? It's government's order. What are you gonna do? Get put in jail like, what the hell's his name, all these people that fought against the evacuation, Korematsu and who else, a bunch of...

MN: Yasui, Hirabayashi.

TY: Hirabayashi and all those guys, yeah. And JACL should've fought it. I don't know why they didn't fight it.

MN: Now, when you went to Kersey with your brother the first time, you had, you got a travel permit. Did you have to get a travel permit the second time?

TY: You mean to come back?

MN: Well not to come back, to go to Colorado. Just to travel.

TY: No. You can go anywhere you want.

MN: So how many cars caravanned with you?

TY: We had a truck, family car, one, two, three, the truck... we had four car caravan including the truck, no, without the truck.

MN: And who made the trip with you? Was it just your family?

TY: Just my family and my folks' good friend and one of the Hiji brothers went. And then they didn't complete the trip. They got scared after Las Vegas. They said, "We don't want to go to unknown place," and so they turned back and went home, so then that was one, two cars less. So there was four cars total. It was tough. Like...

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.