<Begin Segment 17>

TI: So going back to your experiences, because you had a house earlier, the family was leasing this apartment, I imagine they had quite a bit of, kind of like, furnishings. Like furniture, things like that. Where did all that go?

MI: Well, see, we arranged it with the person that we would store all the things in one place, in one room. And so we had to get up real early the day of the evacuation, you strip the beds in that place. And so we left after we got everything done. And then I think the person that bought our car had to make two trips to get us to Chinatown where the bus was going to pick us up.

TI: Do you remember where in Chinatown that you were picked up?

MI: Oh, well, the corners anyway. We just had to...

TI: I always, I mean, one pick up place was on Weller Street?

MI: Yeah, well, it could have been. It was on the other side of Chinatown. And then we just had to carry what we could carry and that was it. And then when we got to Puyallup, they told us to stuff the mattresses with straw because they didn't have mattresses. And then my mom had hay fever, oh, god. I don't know what happened. Anyway, whether they did anything for her, I really can't tell you.

TI: And so with Hiroko staying back in Seattle, there were seven of you.

MI: And we were all in that one room. And we all had to stuff our mattresses with straw.

TI: And about how large was that room, do you remember?

MI: It was all beds.

TI: Was it much larger than this room right here?

MI: There was one potbelly... well, how you get seven beds and a potbelly stove right in the...

TI: So it was just next to each other, it was just pretty much packed. And what area were you guys in?

MI: I was in Area B, which was a parking lot, and so we were in barracks. And then next door was Teruye and Link Beppu, and Grant and Ietsu were next door to them, and across the way was the senior Beppus. And then in front of us was the valley people, that's how I met Val Tanabe and Dorothy Tanabe and the Yotsuyes and whatnot.

TI: When you say "valley" people, you mean like the Auburn valley?

MI: No, Puyallup people.

TI: Puyallup valley, okay.

MI: And then they were able to bring their things in by truck. Because they lived in that area.

TI: So they had more stuff than...

MI: Yeah, they had more stuff, we just had our suitcases.

TI: So I'm curious, when you were preparing, because your sister Hiroko worked with James Sakamoto, did the family get more information about what to do to prepare, like what to bring to Puyallup or anything like that, or where you were going?

MI: We just had to wait for the orders. I just remember we all had to get our typhoid shots. Oh god, that was horrible.

TI: So describe that. Was that at Puyallup you had to get...

MI: No, we had, while we were, after the February something, they said that we all had to get typhoid shots. So it must have been March or April, after typhoid shots, after school. And we all went to Dr. Shigaya's apartment, there was a whole line of people getting typhoid shots. And boy, that was one shot that... never had a sore arm in all the war days. [Laughs]

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.