<Begin Segment 7>

HM: Do you remember any, you said your father was taken away, do you remember anything about it, when they came to your house and what went on at that time?

IW: Yeah. They said... see, in our house we had my uncle's picture, and he was in the cavalry in Japan, and then we had, my mother's side was in the service. And my father was, his father was a doctor. So, and my father used to help people read when they had their Japanese letters and so forth, he helped them out and told them, reading it. And I think a lot of that went on. So he was taken. And it was like a prison because it was in the... what was it, immigration building, and we had people stand there when we talked. So we can talk in English, we talked to him in English, maybe he didn't understand. If it was Japanese, it would have been much easier for us and them, too.

HM: What did your family do to prepare to leave other than packing the suitcases and getting your... in whose hands did you put your farm, and you mentioned something about leaving some things with friends. Could you tell me a little bit more about that?

IW: Well, there was, in six days, and you couldn't go very far, so... it was, you couldn't help other people. We were all women, I mean, Mom and her four daughters. So all we had to do was try to do the best for our family. And people, yeah, some Caucasians tried to help us, but they didn't know what to do either. So we just knew that we had to carry two suitcases and that's all. And the Filipino crop and everything went, it was April 1st. Oh, we arrived in Manzanar April 1st, so I said, "Oh, it must be a big joke. It's April 1st, we're not gonna stay here." Well, we were to stay.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.