Densho Digital Archive - Kunio Otani Interview (denshovh-okunio-01-0010)

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AI: And then, how did you find out that you were gonna' be forced to leave? About the evacuation?

KO: Well, I can't recall exactly how that happened. But, I know that we were all forced to take a physical before we were going to be able to leave. And that kind of struck me as being kind of funny, because we're gonna' have to leave whether we're sick or not. But I guess they didn't want a situation where we might have had some contagious disease that we might carry into camp.

AI: Do you remember when that was? What month that was, that you were having to prepare to go?

KO: No, I really don't. But I do recall that this train came through town, and people came to see us off, and we got on the train, and that was the start of our evacuation. But there was something else that happened before then too; we were told to pack everything, all of our belongings -- which wasn't much -- and that they would store 'em someplace or send 'em to us. Wherever they were stored, we got most of it back, unlike some people I think that lost things that were packed up. Where they stored 'em, I have no idea. But I remember going through this process of trying to pack everything that you owned, and then trying to determine what to take with you. Because I think you were only allowed maybe a couple suitcases or something like that. I'm not sure about that.

AI: Do you remember what you ended up taking? Some of the things that you decided on?

KO: No, I don't. Except, I must've taken my tennis racket, because I ended up with that down there. [Laughs] It must have been important to me. Well, outside of clothing and things like that, there wasn't a heck of a lot to pack anyway, as I recall.

AI: Right. And, do you remember much about what you were told about -- or were you told anything about where you were going, or how long you were gonna' be there, or anything?

KO: No, we really weren't. I don't know if we were aware that we were going into Tule Lake or not. But we were, as the train went from Raymond down south, they stopped at various points and picked up additional people. But I don't remember a heck of a lot about that train ride.