<Begin Segment 11>

SY: So you do remember packing up to go to Manzanar, you remember packing up again?

YY: What we did was, I remember we had a big, big trunk, and we put that in storage.

SY: You mean, storage where? Was it in...

YY: It was a commercial, commercial storage. We paid to keep it there. And we were able to, after about a year in camp we were able to get the, get 'em to deliver that to Manzanar. So we were fortunate that we did that because a lot of the stuff that we needed was in the trunk. But other than that, I remember we just had to carry whatever we could to go to camp.

SY: But you had to be able to pay for the storage space.

YY: Right.

SY: Was it a big trunk?

YY: Yeah, it was a trunk.

SY: So it was a big trunk and you put everything inside it.

YY: Right.

SY: So it must've been pretty, you remember what it was that you put in there, that you got later when you were in Manzanar?

YY: Well, I remember we had some tools in there, that we put in.

SY: Tools like for...

YY: You know, like a hammer and saw and things like that.

SY: Nothing to do with the pharmacy.

YY: No. No.

SY: But you had no furniture, right?

YY: No.

SY: Nothing, nothing, no big items.

YY: No.

SY: Just smaller things.

YY: All our bedding and stuff like that, we got rid of I guess.

SY: And how about personal things, like photos and photo albums?

YY: I think that was in the trunk.

SY: You did save those. Your mother and father saved those.

YY: Yeah.

SY: But you don't remember anything else that you saved?

YY: No.

SY: And the rest of the things, do you think, you sold off?

YY: Either that or they took it, somebody took it. [Laughs]

SY: Because when you were in, you knew when you were in Boyle Heights you had a certain number of days to get ready to go to Manzanar?

YY: No. We didn't know, it was, I don't know how much, how much time we had, but I know that we didn't, we knew that, we didn't know when we were gonna leave. Then we got a notice saying that people that went, that were at Terminal Island would be able to go to Manzanar if they wanted to go.

SY: And had other people that you knew or your family knew, had they already left to go to Manzanar? Or were you the first ones?

YY: No.

SY: You were the first ones.

YY: We were, we were, yeah, one of the first ones. I think people from Bainbridge were there before us. And I don't know, 'cause we were in 9, Blocks 9 and 10, and so the other ones were filled up before we got there.

SY: From one to nine, you mean?

YY: Uh-huh.

[Interruption]

SY: -- your, from Boyle Heights to Manzanar, did you stop?

YY: We went, we went to, it was, let's see, we went to a train station and we, there were buses waiting for us to take, they took us to Manzanar.

SY: And you remember if it was Union Station, or was it a smaller train station?

YY: Well, that station isn't there anymore. They changed it.

SY: Was it East, was it kind of East L.A.?

YY: It was close to the First Street Bridge, right around, right here.

SY: So right outside of Little Tokyo, or part of Little Tokyo at the time.

YY: Yeah.

SY: And they had buses enough for the Terminal Island people? It was all Terminal Island people?

YY: Yeah, I'm pretty sure.

SY: And you, do you remember how many buses there were?

YY: No, I don't remember. There was more than one, I know, but I can't remember how much, how many there were. [Laughs]

SY: So you went directly to Manzanar. You didn't go to Santa Anita.

YY: No.

SY: And the people after you, are those the ones who went to Santa Anita? Do you know? Did you talk to people about how they got to Manzanar?

YY: Well, I talked to people that were living close to where I was living in Boyle Heights, and then they went to Santa Anita, and then from there they went to Heart Mountain. So I don't know, I think the people that went to Manzanar just went directly there.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.