<Begin Segment 6>

[Ed. note: This transcript has been edited by the narrator]

VY: So when you were sent off to camp, where did you go? What camp?

YY: When I went to Japan?

VY: Sorry, when you went off to camp.

YY: Oh, to camp.

VY: When you were sent away, what camp did you go to?

YY: (...) First we went to (the assembly center, Tanforan, a horse race track a few miles south of SF, and then to Topaz, the relocation center in Utah.)

VY: How long were you in Tanforan?

YY: (...) About three months. (We lived in the horse stables and slept on mattresses filled with hay.) Then my father and my two older brothers went ahead of us to (Utah to complete) the work on the barracks. My mother, (sister, and) youngest brother and I, the four of us, went together (on the train about three months later).

VY: Do you remember the trip on the train?

YY: I do.

VY: You do? What was that like?

YY: Well, I was wondering why we had to keep our shades closed, you know. But that was the rule. And I had a hard time understanding that, that we couldn't really look out.

VY: Did you ask your mom why?

YY: Yeah, she just told me that they want you not to open that shade.

VY: Did you know where you were going?

YY: Well, it scared me because they said it's in the desert and there are scorpions. And even though you see it, don't touch it because it can bite. And we didn't know anything about scorpions or things like that, so we were wondering where we were going. I remember being afraid.

VY: Yeah, I've heard other people, actually, talk about, especially people who were kids when they went to camp talk about...

YY: Hmm?

VY: I've heard other people who were children when they were incarcerated with their families talk about the scorpions and being afraid of them. So I'm curious, who was telling you about the scorpions? Was it your parents?

YY: I don't know who it was, but they read about it, and they said they're poisonous, so don't try to pick one up.

VY: Okay, so you arrived in camp. Do you remember the day you arrived?

YY: Do I remember...

VY: The day you arrived, when you arrived in camp?

YY: Arrived in camp?

VY: Do you remember what that was like?

YY: I just remember the desert, and the only plants I saw were the sagebrushes rolling around, and it was very dusty. Whenever the wind was coming, they said, "Close the window," because the dust would come through the screened windows (and it would be all white -- and we would have to sweep and mop the floor again and again).

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2021 Densho. All Rights Reserved.