<Begin Segment 16>

RT: And also things, the rumors started to fly about, oh, they were going to be moving all of us out, and the disbelief, "They can't do that." And so in our family, they figured that our grandma would be moved. She was an alien.

AI: Your mother's mother.

RT: Yeah. Our grandma, my mother's mother, and they were --

[Interruption]

AI: You were saying that rumors were flying about people being taken away and, or possibly having to leave, and you were thinking about what would happen to your grandmother.

RT: Well, that was in the family, you see. The family assumed that it would be just my grandmother that would be moved. And so the big discussion was, who would go with her? She can't go by herself, and, of course, they had already decided that it had to be one of the aunties. And I'm not sure which one they had picked, but lo and behold... now, that was a new word for us: evacuation. That order came out and we found out, "Oh, it's not just Grandma that's going to go, we're all going to go."

AI: When... do you remember when that came out, about when that was?

RT: Well, it was February 19th that the order came out, in 1942.

AI: And how you, do you remember how you first found out about it?

RT: Well, I'm sure that my mother and my Uncle Tok and the whole community found out when the order was, became official. And up until that time I think that they just couldn't believe that this was going to happen, but once the order came out and it was official, even then there was some disbelief, "Well, this couldn't be happening." But it did. So, I would say that we all found out about the same time. Probably by the end of February we all realized that we were going to be moved.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.