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DG: So, now your mom is, is the head of the family now, because your dad is...

MW: Yes.

DG: ...is locked away, and the exclusion order comes out. And so I'd like you, again, to think back to that day and the memories you have and the things your family went through and the feelings...

MW: Well, I, I do remember we had to go down to the Anderson Hardware and sign up for, for our numbers and, as a family. And, so we did do that. And there's, of course a big sign up, up there telling us that that's what we're supposed to do. And, and I suppose we came home with those little tags that we were to wear when we were taken away. But I just remember that building. And of course I'm accustomed to that building 'cause the grocery store was right next to it. And we used to go into both the grocery store and Anderson Hardware and also the dry goods store which was across the street from there. So, that whole area is very familiar to me because I was the one that had to do the grocery shopping.

DG: And your whole family went down together to, to register. Were you interviewed at that time?

MW: I don't remember being interviewed, but they could have been. And, you know, being that I was not the oldest one in the family... for my mother, it was, it helped because my brother was older and my sister was, my sisters were older, so it probably helped her, if they did interview. But the main thing was, I think, getting your age and your birthdays and things like that so that they could record it.

DG: And do remember hearing discussions that the older siblings and your mom might have had at that time about what was going on?

MW: Well, I do remember my mother worrying about us having to go thinking that we shouldn't have to go, and being interned because we were citizens. And she said, "I can understand them wanting to take us," because -- meaning her -- because she was not a citizen. But that was not by her choice, it was because they weren't allowed to become citizens. And, and then later, when she was, she went to English school in camp and everything, and later when they did allow them to become citizens, she did become a citizen. But in those days, in 1942, she just thought it was very wrong for us to have to go to a camp also.

DG: All right, but I guess you were headed anyways.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.