Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Minoru Tajii Interview
Narrator: Minoru Tajii
Interviewer: Martha Nakagawa
Location: Gardena, California
Date: February 14, 2012
Densho ID: denshovh-tminoru_2-01-0017

<Begin Segment 17>

MN: Now, when talks of having to go into camp started, how did you learn that you had to go into a camp?

MT: All that story went around that all the Japanese had to go. So they all went over there to the Buddhist church in El Centro and got on a bus, and they bussed us into Poston.

MN: How did you feel about having to go into a camp?

MT: We didn't know anybody except the people that we were farming with. You didn't know what's going to happen or anything. Only thing they told us was, "One suitcase per person," and that was it.

MN: So what did you do with all your furniture and big items?

MT: Well, what we had, including the car, we put into this airplane hangar. This guy here had an airplane hangar, and we went into camp. And we went into camp, and about a year later, he sends out notice to everybody, "Get your thing out." We can't even come to California, and how are we gonna take it out of the storage? I don't know what he did with it, but the car, we had the pink slip, he couldn't sell it, so we resold it and got two hundred dollars for it, that was it. And they wouldn't... it was low mileage, because farm to El Centro and that's it, about once a week. But that's the way it was.

MN: So the other items, you just lost it?

MT: We lost everything, yes. Everybody that had the furniture and anything else, you lost everything. Especially your clothes and like that, the only thing we had is the one suitcase.

MN: What happened to your crop?

MT: We sold it to Friedman, and he was the only one that would be willing to take over. But we didn't get anything, we lost money on that. Because, you know, the company's not going to say, "I'm going to give you top price," they're going to give you less amount he can, but what can we do? The crop is getting ready to come out, and so you just settle. My brother and mother went out and sold it.

MN: I think you mentioned this earlier, but what happened to your mules and chicken and dog?

MT: We don't know what happened to it, because those Mexican people that were living there, they did whatever they wanted with it.

MN: So on the day you were supposed to go to camp, where did you gather?

MT: We gathered in the Buddhist church.

MN: In El Centro?

MT: Uh-huh, in El Centro.

MN: Do you remember what month or day it was?

MT: Gee, I don't remember. Everything was very confusing in those days. Because your father is gone, he used to be the leader, and your mother, well, she doesn't know what's going on because my father was gone, only thing she was doing was crying, because she didn't know what to do. So it was hard then.

MN: Do you remember how you got to the El Centro Buddhist Church?

MT: No, I don't remember. But somehow we got there, 'cause we couldn't take our car there, 'cause we had no way of parking it anywhere.

MN: So from the El Centro Buddhist Church, what happened?

MT: Well, from there, we were put on bus, taken into Poston. And when we got into Poston, they gave us a bag and says, "You see those straws over there? Put that in your bag, that's going to be your bed.

MN: But you didn't take the bus into Poston, right? You got on a train first?

MT: Well, it was just a very short time, and then there was a bus. That's all I can remember, is the bus that we rode on into camp. In those days, you were very confused because your father was gone.

MN: How long did it take to get from El Centro to Arizona?

MT: Well, it took the whole day. 'Cause we got on the early... I would say nine, ten o'clock in the morning, got on the train, and then, well, they said it was a train, I don't remember. And then we went into, I think they took us into Parker, and then from Parker we got a bus into the camp.

MN: Which camp did you end up in?

MT: Poston I.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.