<Begin Segment 14>

TI: Okay. And so the day that you leave Riverside, can you describe that day? What was that like?

FD: Well, it's hard to describe. Well, I felt sort of bitter about it. I said, I thought, we haven't done anything, and according to what we've been taught in school, people aren't supposed to be imprisoned without so-called due process of law, and I didn't see any due process of law for us. That is, they didn't take us in front of a judge and hold a trial, and they just decided that they wanted to get rid of all the Japanese. And so I was rather angry about that. In fact, I'm still angry about that.

TI: So were you able to talk to anyone, any adults about this, like at school or anything else?

FD: Yeah, I talked to the principal about it, and he agreed that it was unfair and that he was sorry on behalf of whoever was at fault, but he couldn't do anything about it.

TI: How about your Caucasian friends? Did anybody say anything to you about leaving?

FD: Yeah, they asked, "Well, what do you think about the war?" And all I can remember is I sort of stuttered and said, "Oh, I don't know," and we just sort of laughed it off and then went on with life as usual. In fact... well, actually, that's what I wrote in one of my stories.

TI: And so the day you leave, do you remember what you were wearing?

FD: No.

TI: Or what you carried?

FD: No, I don't remember those details. I do recall that the men seemed to be dressed in their best clothes, their nice suits, and Issei women seemed to be dressed up in their good clothes. And I don't know about me, I don't remember what I wore. [Laughs]

TI: And did you know where you were going at this point?

FD: No, we didn't know.

TI: Okay. So then were you picked up with buses, or how did you leave Riverside?

FD: Well, Mrs. Beck drove us to the place where the buses were going to pick us up, it was downtown someplace.

TI: And so where did the buses take you?

FD: Well, they took us to Poston.

TI: So you went all of it by bus, or did you do it partly by train?

FD: No, all by bus. Because Riverside is inland, and I don't think there's any train that goes from Riverside to the Poston area. The train... I'm not sure.

TI: But still it's a pretty long drive then.

FD: Yeah, it was a long drive.

TI: And do you recall anything from that journey that you remember going on a bus from Riverside to Poston?

FD: Not much anymore, but I did write about it some years ago. In fact, I wrote a lot of that stuff down because I thought when I get older I'm going to forget, so I have to document it now, and I'm glad I did.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2016 Densho. All Rights Reserved.