<Begin Segment 6>

DG: So now we'll go back to your family, and the United States is at war, and now the Executive Order is posted that you have to leave Bainbridge Island. And can you tell me what you remember and maybe what you remember feeling once you realized that you were going to have to move?

ES: Well, I think the hardest part was trying to gather up the things that we were gonna take. I mean, what were we supposed to take? We owned very little things that we had to take. And so my parents, I kind of remember them having to store a lot of things because the neighbor was going to move in to our house and take care of the farm for a while, because it was strawberry planting time. I think they already had planted the berries and so they were supposed to do the first year crop. And I think they... I don't remember destroying too many things, or, you know, that we... well, we didn't have that much to begin with, I mean, a lot of things to store, but our personal things, our pictures and things, some of those things. And I think some of the... was it some of the dishes she had? Anyway, when the, the family stayed there for a few years and did the work, and then they wanted to move back to their own house, and so the house was vacated. And so lotta things were taken out, quite a few things were taken. When we came back, there was, there was nothing there. But we salvaged some of the pictures and things, I guess it was of no value to people to take the pictures. But, yeah, so I just remember them, my folks did most of the packing for us, I mean, they just did it quietly and told, told us how much, you know, we could pack. So we took very few things. I don't even remember what I took in the suitcase. But like I said, we didn't have that much, that many things that we had, you know, that were of value or anything. So, when, when that order came through, we just accepted it. It wasn't right for us to accept it, but we just... we didn't, you know, through, always used to be obedient to our parents. So that's what we did; they told us what we had to do, so we did it.

DG: Do you remember what you were told and what you understood was happening?

ES: Well, they told us we were gonna have to move, we're gonna have to leave the place. But I don't remember them mentioning that we'll be going to a certain camp. But they must have told us that, too, but we were just, accepted that. In, in a way, it was kind of a new experience for us because we've never done anything like that before. So we didn't... in a way it was kinda, we were kinda looking forward to that part of it, 'cause we don't know what, what was gonna happen. There was no fear at that time. I mean, they didn't scare us into it. I mean, they just told, told us that we were gonna have to move.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.