<Begin Segment 14>

SY: So when did you find out that you were going to be moved from Santa Anita?

CI: I don't know.

SY: You don't remember how you found out? Your mother telling you?

CI: No, but everybody was kind of concerned about where are we going to go? Because my Aunt Irene and Uncle Tad were there. And they were living in the stables. And so we kind of realized that depending on where you lived before the war, was going to determine where we were going to be sent from Santa Anita. And sure enough, they went to Heart Mountain and we went to Rohwer.

SY: Was there any rhyme or reasons to who ended up in the stables?

CI: Small families.

SY: Usually small families?

CI: Yeah, they had just the three of them, they had just one child, where we had a big family.

SY: Did you visit them in the stables?

CI: Oh, yeah, we did.

SY: And did you notice it being much worse than where you were living?

CI: Well, they lived, I think they lived in the front unit. There was a unit in the back, and so the people that lived in the back had to go say, "Sorry. Knock, knock, knock, can we come through?" And they had to go through my aunt and uncle's unit to go to their own unit. So that was terrible. No privacy. And of course, they had whitewashed their stables, but they smelled very, very bad. It was mostly people that had small families.

SY: I see. And you noticed that yourself when you went to see them? Were you happy to be where you were as opposed to living in the stables?

CI: Yeah, it was better.

SY: Better.

CI: They were new, the barracks were new.

SY: So everybody was a little concerned about where you'd end up. And so when you were separated, when your family was separated, was there discussion about that among your family?

CI: I can't remember that. I do know that there was a train, so we would go to the train and a lot of people were having to say goodbye to their families. I'm not sure about whether family units were broken up. I think sometimes, like newlyweds would be separated from their parents because depending on where they lived before the war.

SY: And how did you end up getting, so you took the train to go to...

CI: Yes, to Arkansas.

SY: Arkansas.

CI: It took us three days.

SY: You remember that train ride?

CI: I remember the train ride. I can't remember where we slept. I guess we slept in the chairs. I know that they didn't provide sleepers, and I don't remember... I think eating, I think we had sandwiches. But beyond that...

SY: Do you remember stopping on the train where you...

CI: We did. And whenever we stopped we had to pull down the blinds so that we couldn't see out and people couldn't see in. There was a musician in our train, and he kept us entertained by singing, or he had us sing along. When we got to Texas, we all learned how to sing "Deep in the Heart of Texas" because he told us the words. So I do remember that, singing for three days because he was on our train and taught us some songs, which was good.

SY: So you learned how to sing a lot of songs, huh?

CI: But I remember specifically that one. He said, "Okay, now we're in Texas, we're going to sing, 'Deep in the Heart of Texas.'"

SY: Do you remember the guards, were there guards?

CI: I don't remember the guards. I'm sure they were probably up and down. I don't know guards.

SY: Do you remember it being uncomfortable?

CI: No, I don't remember. See, I can't remember about the trip except for singing.

SY: The good part.

CI: Yeah.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.