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HM: Can you remember back to the evacuation time, was your father taken away by the FBI?

YT: No, my father wasn't taken away. But at that time, right after high school, somebody had told me that there was an opening for a housemaid, and my dad really couldn't afford to let me go, but then he thought it would be a good experience for me because I've always been at home working with the kids, and all that, that it would do me good to see what it was like on the outside. So I went to do housework in Seattle and then the war broke out, and I remember listening to the radio telling me that Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor and I was sad. And here I was in Seattle, and all the family were on Bainbridge, and then shortly afterwards they said there was no more aliens or the Japanese going back and forth to Bainbridge Island anymore. And somehow, I was stuck in Seattle, right? And so then we had, our closest family friend was Mr. and Mrs. Tsujimoto that ran the Rex Hotel in Seattle. And I called them and said, "I don't know what to do." I said, "The war broke out, I can't go home." And she said, "Don't worry," she said, "You could evacuate with us when the time comes," you know, the evacuation story had come out. I don't know how, I don't remember contacting Ms. McCullough - she was a missionary from Baptist church in Seattle that used to come out to Hirakawa's church and we would get -- she would gather us and we would go to her religion, she'd have a religious group there. Anyway, when I was stuck in Seattle, she called me... I don't know if I called her, or she called me, but she said, "I will take you to the U.S. Attorney's office. We'll go and see what we can do." So she called me -- she made the appointment and we went to the U.S. Attorney's office and she said, "This girl has to go home because she takes place of her mother, and with this evacuation, she will be stuck here by herself, her father with two brothers and two sisters are on the island," and you know, that I should belong back home. I don't know what was said at that meeting, but anyway, at the end of the meeting, the attorney said, "If you're going to go, I'll give you permission to leave tonight, but you got to go tonight." And I thought, my gosh, I have to pack, I have to let Mrs. Tsujimoto know I'm going, because Mrs. Tsujimoto always said if evacuation come, and you had to go evacuate, she said, "You could come with us, we'll make sure you won't be stranded." But when Mrs. McCullough said, you know, she would recommend I go home because this was my last chance, so I did go home that day and I was able to evacuate with the family. Otherwise I don't know where I would have been. So I really had a sad time, I think.

HM: And there was a picture of Jane being carried by one of the soldiers at the time of evacuation. Do you recall any things during that actual leaving your house and going down to the ferry dock?

YT: I remember the truck coming and getting on it. But what was this about Jane?

HM: Well, there is a picture of Jane in front of, by the truck or something.

YT: With a cat?

HM: No, with a soldier holding her.

YT: Well, she was only about six, seven?

HM: She was eight.

YT: I don't know, they had to help us get on the truck because that was high, but I don't remember. But I remember getting on the truck.

HM: Do you remember anything about the ferry ride, the train ride or the thoughts you had?

YT: Well, we were kind of stunned. We couldn't take everything we had, we just left it. So we packed what we had to. And then Mrs. Tsujimoto said they would try to be at the dock, you know, the ramp over the street on Marion. I remember when we got off the ferry, there were a bunch of people there, and I didn't recognize anybody there at the time, but they were there and they said they waved us goodbye. And we were on the train and we didn't know where we were headed for at the time. It was sad, but we didn't know what were, you know, we just followed orders and went wherever we were supposed to go, so it was strange.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.