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PW: So now I want to shift over, because about, when you were about eight years old, I believe, is when, it was December 1941 when Imperial Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, started the war. So you said that, do you have any memory of this actual day?

RO: I became very conscious and aware of the fact that then because my mother and father were talking about the end of the war, but you don't pay much attention to that. So until then we got the notice, and my mother says, well, we're going to be packing up and leaving and we're going to be moving and so on. And I remember then one of the things in February that my mother bought me a BB gun. It was my prized possession, this BB gun. And so then she says, "Well, you're not going to be able to take that to where we're going." And I was really kind of alarmed by that. She says, "Well, what can do is probably give it to your best friend." And I thought, okay, well, I can do that. So my best friend was, his family ran a hardware store, and so then I remember walking over there with my BB gun and talking to this friend. I said, "We're going to be leaving and we can't take this, so I would like you to have it." And it was just a very faint memory until we came back. But anyway, so that was what I did.

It's very, very interesting, so then as we were getting ready and trying to decide, then my mother and father packing up suitcases and cardboard boxes and whatever. And because the train that will take us into the relocation area and so on, because we didn't have to come... my mother and father may have had to go to Fresno and register, I'm not quite sure. But I remembered that the, because the train came along the, I guess it was the Santa Fe tracks and so on, right in front of the restaurant. And so as a result, here was this... I remember then after closing of the restaurant and so on, and packing bags and so on, and looking out the front window of the restaurant and seeing this olive drab train just there. And then all these people that were lined up there on the other side of the highway waiting then with their bags and cardboard boxes and so on, and then a few military people, and then, of course, a lot of plainclothes people and so on, which obviously were probably FBI. So then I remember walking over there, and then we were given these manila tags and so on that had the identification for the family, and we were told to put in on the button and so on, and eventually then we all were loaded on the train. And so we were told not to put up the shades and so on, the shades had to be kept down. But then the fact that we were all there, there were hundreds of people there that were going to be transported by this train. They must have had probably five or eight cars and so on. But it was very interesting. And it was kind of an adventure, like, because I wasn't quite sure where we were going. I had no idea, and they were saying, "Well, we're going to be riding the train for a day or so." So we accept that get on the train, and you just take off. As a young boy, everything is different, everything is new, everything is kind of exciting.

And so then I remember this long train ride, and one of the things I also remember is because you were not allowed to look out the window because the shades were always drawn, until the train stopped in Arizona. And I remember, because we were told we were going to be getting off at that point, I remember the train stopping. And I looked underneath the shades, and it was this little depot. My most important memory was then seeing all these Native American women that had blankets that were laid out in front of them with all these items that they had made, Indian jewelry, pots and so on. So I thought, oh my goodness, where is this? And we realized that Arizona, we're in Arizona. But then we were loaded into army trucks and then shipped off to the site, which was probably a couple hours away.

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