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PW: So from Tanforan to Topaz, did you take a train?

YW: Yes.

PW: Do you remember anything about that train?

YW: Only that they made us close the drapes, the shade, so we couldn't see out. They said it's so people couldn't see in, what's the difference? But anyway, so everything was dark, people were sick, that's all I could remember.

PW: Do you remember when you got to Delta, did you get to Delta and then they took you on a bus to Topaz?

YW: You know, when we got to Salt Lake City, I think it was, where they transferred us to buses to go out to the desert.

PW: And I imagine that you were not well yourself?

YW: I was so sick, I didn't know where I was. The trains that they put us on were those old, old trains. The seats were like wooden seats, they were very uncomfortable. And we weren't allowed to walk around, like you could walk on some trains now, so it was very hard that way.

PW: So what were your first impressions of Topaz one you arrived? I don't know if it was night or day, but once you started to really look around, what did you think about Topaz?

YW: You know, all I can remember about Topaz when we first got there was get in line, move, move. And I hated that word "move," because nobody wanted to move. And we had to find our new barracks, and there was nothing in there except a cot. There was those old, black potbelly stoves, except there was nothing to burn in the stoves. You know, you burn coal in those potbelly stoves to keep you warm. And it's a desert, but you'd be surprised at how cold a desert could get, I didn't know that. I was born and raised in Berkeley, and wasn't used to the weather, we all had California clothes, and we didn't have very much of that. Like I said, there were Coleman stoves but no coal to burn. I noticed that in one of the museums, they showed some things that were taken from camp, and they had this nice, clean black Coleman stove, and they were saying, yes, it's nice and clean because it was never used, but yes, we did get a Coleman stove.

PW: Did your husband work?

YW: Yes, he was very fortunate. He was a big man and very strong, and he worked up at the hospital, he was a machinist, so they had a one and only... (...) ambulance. And he took care of the ambulance, and they treated him real well. Because he was a big, strong man, he was able to lift and carry patients. He was able to move the equipment, he was able to take care of the one and only ambulance. So he was given permission to go into Delta to the town that's the closest. And when he was there, he said that he could go to the restaurant to eat, but he didn't have any money. So before he went, we tried to get what little money we had, or we knew that somebody would buy what we had, we would sell it to get a few cents so I could give it to him, so when he goes into town he could eat a meal. And like I said, people liked him at the hospital because he was very useful, very helpful. So he was treated well, because that's where he spent most of his time.

PW: What about your father?

YW: My father remarried when he was in Topaz, and they gave him one of the, there was a small room at the end of the barracks. What they did was they broke up the barracks and made it into apartments, and then gave him the one on the end, which was the smallest and it was for maybe just a couple.

PW: And what was your stepmother's name since he remarried?

YW: Her name was Aya, but I'm trying to think what her... I can't remember now what her original name was. But she was somebody that I knew from before when I lived in Berkeley. They had a group of friends who used to play cards together, and she belonged to the same club as my dad did, I guess, in the same Buddhist church, and I think that's how they met. And she was very nice and very helpful after they married, and she came to the laundry. She did all the cooking for everybody in laundry, she babysat our children. She was very, very good, I was very happy for my dad, he had somebody.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.