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VY: Okay, so on December 7, 1941, do you remember that day? Do you remember what your parents were doing and do you remember what you were doing?

BT: On what day?

VY: How they prepared for -- the day that Japan bombed Pearl Harbor?

BT: Oh, December (7th)? My two (older) brothers were, they had gone, it was a Sunday, and they had gone to see a basketball game in Berkeley. And on the way back, on the radio, they heard about the bombing, so when they got back they told us about it. But reflecting back, I think my parents and my older brothers and so on kept the worrying part from us kids, because I don't remember... I remember a lot of things, but I don't remember any of them talking about what's going to happen to us, or anything, or worried. In fact, in San Mateo, many times we would meet for dinner, and we used to sit around this table all together and talk about what happened during the day and so on. But I don't recall any worries that they had of what's going to happen to us or anything like that. So they must have protected us as kids from that kind of worry. I realize it now, too late to thank them.

VY: So where were you sent to when you had to go? What camp were you sent to?

BT: Okay. So when the time came, that was May the 19th as I recall, was the day when we had to leave our house. At that time, we were told that we could only take what we can carry, so I remember my mother telling us to wear as many sweaters, jackets, as possible. And also, I remember my mother, she didn't want to leave the sugar, because sugar was precious, so she made, not peanut brittle because peanuts were expensive, but just sugar brittle. She cooked the sugar and made it into, like, a candy form, and I remember having a lot of those brittles. Because we didn't know what our food situation might be, and she felt that if she made these sugar brittles, that if we got hungry, that we could at least nibble on the sugar and get some energy. So I remember we were getting that and then she also made, those of us who could carry the bag which contained, she had some cloth bags and canvas bags made for us to carry, and it included pillows and blankets and sheets and so on that we were told we had to carry, so I remember carrying that with us as we walked from our home to a meeting place where we boarded buses to go to Tanforan in San Bruno. And the thing I recall is walking by the sidewalk to get to this meeting place. I remember passing by some of my schoolmates' (homes), and I remember seeing them opening their curtains and looking as we passed by. And at that time, I remember thinking, gee, how come they don't come out and at least wish us well? But then, many years later, I realized that they were Germans and Italians, school friends, and they didn't really know what was going to happen to them after us. So I have a feeling that they just didn't want to be identified as being too friendly with the so-called "enemy aliens," because that's what we were called, "enemy aliens." And therefore I forgave them many years later, after I realized that that's probably why they didn't come out to wish us well. And so when we got to the meeting place and boarded our buses, I remember seeing many Caucasian people helping us assign to the buses and also giving us refreshments. And many years later, I (learned) that these were Quakers that were volunteering to help us during this period. And so I mention this to, whenever I get a chance to, to thank the Quakers. Because I'm sure that after we left, they were harassed and talk bad about. I didn't hear anything about it, but I'm assuming that they weren't treated very nicely because they helped us be as comfortable as possible in the circumstances. So we do, the Japanese community does thank them for taking care of us during a trying time.

So we boarded the buses and it took about an hour, I guess, from San Mateo to San Bruno, and when we got off, we were told to go to the grandstand where the racetrack, grandstand, and then there we were told what was going to be happening to us. And because our family was ten by then, we were fortunate in getting barracks, two rooms in the barrack. A barrack consisted of two smaller rooms on the outside, and three larger rooms on the inside. And so we got two of the bigger rooms of a barrack, and the barracks were located inside the racetrack. So we were fortunate and able to find and stay in the barracks. The rooms, however, were just nothing but one lightbulb, and we had extension cords we had to use, and they put ropes, and hang partition-like things over to provide some form of privacy. There was no running water in the barracks, the walls were made out of thin plywood, and there were no ceilings. So we found out that if we talk too loud, we can hear people on the ends of the barracks talking, so we tried to talk in whispers if we did talk, and just try not to say too many things that could be heard. And they had what they called the latrines or toilets, and shower rooms and (laundry) room, separately, were strategically located, and so we had to go to those facilities to take care of our functions, and also to the mess halls. So even at nighttime we would have to do that.

And the government used to tell the (public), I found out later that they were doing, putting us into camp to protect us. Well, if that was the case, then the barbed wire fences that were around the racetracks and so on would have the barbed wire facing outward to keep people from coming in, but it was facing inwards to keep us in these centers, we called them assembly centers. Then the searchlights at nighttime were pointing inwards and not outwards to keep people from coming in, but keeping us inside, making sure we weren't doing anything wrong. And the guard towers are located around the camp, would have armed guards and military police with rifles or submachine guns, and facing inwards to keep us in. So we found out very quickly that this was not for our protection, it was certainly to just keep us in.

And so we adjusted, and we're not fools, so we just realized that, hey, we don't know how long we're going to be in this situation, but we have to make the best of it, and that's what we did. We just do the best we can for us kids, we're teenagers, there were no schools, so then we developed new friends. And so we would go to breakfast and come out and go play, and then lunchtime we'd go eat together and then go out and play and then go home. Then nighttime have dinner and then go back to the barracks and sleep, and rest up for the next day. So that was the kind of life that we started to feel.

My sisters, however, had it pretty rough because there was no partition between the toilets or the showers, and so one day when we were at home, we had all the privacy provided, but the next day, then we come to this situation where there's nothing private. Privacy is nothing, it's just wide open. And so my sisters especially, ladies and girls just couldn't get used to having this openness. And a lot of the men and boys got used to it pretty quickly, but I remember my sisters were pretty upset and not wanting to do it.

Also, I think, looking back, that it was a breakup of the family because we would go to lunch and dinner and breakfast with our friends, and my mother would, she wasn't that sociable, so she would get the, pick up the meal at the mess hall and then go back to the barrack and eat it by herself and so on. Because my father was working at one of the mess halls trying to earn sixteen dollars a month to pay for cigarettes or whatever needs that would occur, because that was the only income that was available. So that was the kind of life that we started to try to get used to when we got into Tanforan. Sometimes they would show movies and so on, but primarily it was, for us, as I said, it was just paradise because no school. But basically our freedom was certainly not there, and we have to make the best of it under the circumstances.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.