<Begin Segment 14>

MN: Now, how did you learn that you had to go into a camp?

BT: Yeah, they had these signs posted on telephone poles. And of course, that was big, big news there, so everybody was talking about it.

MN: How did you feel when you learned you had to go into camp?

BT: You know, it's, it's kind of a strange thing. To me, it says, well, if the president says we have to do this, we'll do it, you know? Because we were raised as being, to respect our elders or our superiors, so you don't question these people. So to me it was a natural thing. The president says you're going to camp, I says, "Oh, okay. We'll go into camp."

MN: How did your family prepare to go into camp?

BT: Well, we didn't have too much material or things, but what we had, a friend of ours had a house with a large cellar, so he allowed us to put our things in there with his things, and then he locked that up for the duration of the war. So at least we were able to save what little we had.

MN: So when you came back, were your items still there?

BT: Of course, my sister, most of the stuff was there, but then when she walked into the house she noticed that the lady of the house was using her baby crib. At first the lady denied it was my sister's. She said she went out and bought it, but my sister insisted, "No, that's mine." So later that lady admitted and gave it to my sister. We were lucky compared to a lot of other people.

MN: When you had to leave for camp, what was the most treasured item you had to leave behind?

BT: It would be my bicycle and cameras. And I gave it to my friend Roy, the German kid. Yeah, and then when we were leaving he gave me one of his track medals. He was on the track team, doing shot put and discus. He always came in second place. The one that always beat him out was a Japanese American that was going to Fresno High School.

MN: Do you still have this medal?

BT: No, I lost it right after I came to L.A. In those days we used to have a keychain hanging from our belt loop, and I had the medal on there, and I must've caught it on the streetcar, in the chair, because after I got off the streetcar that evening, that's when I noticed I was missing the medal.

MN: Now, before you entered the Fresno Assembly Center, you visited the Pinedale Assembly Center. What were the circumstances around this?

BT: Okay, Pinedale's the other assembly center in Fresno. A friend of mine, his mother was a professional midwife, and evidently they had volunteered to go into Pinedale to, you know. So the last load, they, the family had gone ahead and my friend, he took the last load in his car. And he wanted me to bring the car back, so I went with him. And when we approached the gate, he told 'em that I'm here to take the car back. Says, "Well, you know, once you come inside a camp you can't leave." And that really shook me up, so my friend says, "No, don't worry. He's kidding you." So I turned the car around and went back home, put it in the garage, locked it up for him. Yeah.

MN: How, yeah, just out of curiosity, how did they know that you weren't supposed to be in Pinedale?

BT: My friend told the MP that I'm there just to bring him in and, "He's gonna take the car back." I don't think people were, I don't think Pinedale was filled up at that time, but they, because his mother went there preparing... we called that advanced crew. They go in to prepare the camp.

MN: Do you think your friend's car was still there in the garage after the war?

BT: Yeah. It's funny, though, we didn't, I seen him once after we returned to the West Coast, and he said everything was okay.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.