<Begin Segment 15>

TI: Okay, so Clara, right before the break we were talking about you going to Spokane to, I guess, rejoin Bill. But before you get to Spokane, talk about the train ride. How did you get from Tule Lake to Spokane?

CH: From Tule Lake to Spokane, I had... from Tule Lake to Boise I rode a bus. And they put you on a bus, and then from Boise, the train stops there, and then so I got on, and it was a troop train. No, it wasn't a troop train in Boise. I made another stop in Pendleton, and then from Pendleton it went up north to Spokane. That's when I got on a troop train, and I mean, I didn't know it was a troop train. I got on, and it was all soldiers all around, and I felt, oh, my god. I felt like a little worm. I just got my one and only suitcase, and I sat in the corner. There was a seating, the guys were all standing up somehow, I don't know why. And they were all crowded and talking and everything. So I just sat with my suitcase close to me, and I just sat there, and I had to go to the bathroom, but I didn't go, I just held on until I got to Spokane. [Laughs]

TI: So tell me why were you so anxious about the troop train?

CH: You've been in camp for all this time and didn't see any, you know, hakujins other than the camp...

TI: The MPs?

CH: Yeah, and the people that ran the camp, the upper class. There were some hakujin, not too many, because the rest of it was run by Japanese. But you know, you wonder what they might to do to me. I'm sure they were headed for Japan. So I don't know, I just felt like a little worm, I just sat there and didn't look around or anything. And it was, I don't know how many hours a ride, four hours or whatever it was, I just stayed there until I got to Spokane. And then when I got off, I mean, the train stopped, and of course I looked out to see if I could see Bill or if I could see anything that looks familiar. And then I saw Bill and I just grabbed a hold of him and I started crying, and I was just sobbing. I don't know, I was so scared.

TI: Now, did any of the soldiers ever say anything to you?

CH: [Shakes head]. And I didn't want, that's another thing, I didn't want to be noticed as Japanese, you know, from camp. To run into... civilians, you might, I don't know if I felt any different, but soldiers on top of that just scared the heck out of me. [Laughs] I didn't know what they would do to me.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2015 Densho. All Rights Reserved.