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MN: And then you mentioned that you had some family from San Pedro?

YK: Yeah.

MN: Were these Terminal Island people?

YK: Yes, uh-huh.

MN: And this is relatives from your mother's side?

YK: Yes.

MN: How long did they stay with you?

YK: Well, only a couple months, then they were, I guess, Manzanar got completed, so we got shipped up there.

MN: I know you were just a child at that time, but did you have any idea what happened to these people? Did you know they were kicked out of their home?

YK: Oh, yeah, we knew that's why they were on the farm, that there was concern that Terminal Island was right in the harbor, and so the navy claimed there could be sabotage of the ships.

MN: So you have this new family come in. Where did they sleep?

YK: Gosh, I don't know. I guess we got more cots and put 'em around, 'cause they were, there were about five or six of them.

MN: That's a lot of people to accommodate.

YK: Yeah.

MN: Did they help out on the farm?

YK: Yeah, I guess so.

MN: And how did they know that they had to go to Manzanar? Did the government locate them?

YK: Oh, yeah.

MN: And so you're now having to go into camp also. How did you feel? Did you understand what it meant to go into camp?

YK: No, I just knew we were gonna be sent away and we didn't know where, but we would be leaving our home and ranch. I remember we got up early and people helped us get to the Santa Ana train station where there were many families lined up there next to the train. We all had, we could only take what we could carry, so we had bought a bunch of suitcases, and we had a family number that we wrote right on the suitcases. Then we also had tags around our neck identifying us. And then we were lined up there, and finally, there was this big black train there with all the shades drawn, and we were finally ordered to board. And my younger sister and I were too small, so we had to be carried up, and then we were all able to sit in the same area of the train. But I told my mother I wanted to peek out the blinds, and she said, "You better not, 'cause there's an armed soldier at the front and the back of each car," and they didn't want us to look out. So as the train started away, (we all) just kind of felt that, well, will we ever, because we didn't know where we were going, and we didn't know if we'd ever come back again, so that was kind of scary.

MN: Now going back to your packing situation, was there a prized item that you wanted to take but you couldn't take with you?

YK: Well, my bicycle. [Laughs] That was the only thing I really owned. So the only thing I could take was I had in elementary school received a little ship inside of a bottle. I always wondered how they got the ship in there, apparently with long tweezers. But anyway, so that was my one possession that I had from San Clemente Elementary School. I don't remember what it was for, whether it was for good attendance or I don't know what for. But anyway, it's a thing I've held for a lifetime, so I did take that to camp. That was probably the only possession I had other than my hand-me-down clothes.

MN: So the bicycle, what happened to it?

YK: Well, it was sold for practically nothing.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.