Densho Digital Archive
Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community Collection
Title: Kay Sakai Nakao Interview
Narrator: Kay Sakai Nakao
Interviewer: Debra Grindeland
Location: Bainbridge Island, Washington
Date: February 25, 2006
Densho ID: denshovh-nkazuko-01-0005

<Begin Segment 5>

DG: So, Kay, I'd like to go back, too, and just kind of hear about your thoughts and feelings of you and your family. Did you know -- you didn't know where you were going, but how did you feel about what might, how you might be treated, what was going to happen to you? Did you know?

KN: No. We didn't even know where we were going, to the Arctic or the desert or in-between. Nobody said anything. We were just leaving, period. So we just sort of went along without any argument. You know the Japanese saying: you obey, you mind, don't rock the boat. So that's how everything went. Just, we had no inkling. And I don't know where I got this idea that, well, we'll be gone six months. And of course, we were gone three-and-a-half years. So, our young life wasted.

DG: And did you have any feeling for your future?

KN: No, we didn't even think about anything like that, I don't think. I didn't, and I was twenty-two at the time, you know.

DG: Were you concerned for your safety or your well-being?

KN: In a way, yes. Well, the government always says, "It's for your safety." As somebody remarked, well, if that's the case, why do they, the guards up on the tower in camps, got the gun pointing inwards and not outwards? So, I don't think you really thought about those things very much. We were just sort of in a daze, confused. Couldn't even rationalize.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.