<Begin Segment 13>

MU: Now, when the evacuation, or the incarceration process began to take place under the government order 9066, where were you then?

HW: Well, we were, we were already evacuated in March, out of Pacific Northwest.

MU: You were back in...

HW: In Ohio.

MU: Ohio.

HW: Yeah.

MU: Well then, you hadn't...

HW: And then in April they started with Bainbridge Island, the evacuation of Bainbridge Island.

MU: You had no chance to help your folks move?

HW: No. Actually what happened is that while I was in the army and while things were getting this way, there was a line of demarcation set up. Who's going to -- which side of the line is gonna be evacuated. And a friend of ours had a farm, had acreage. And family decided to buy five acres of strawberries because it was on the east side of the line. And I was...

MU: I think they called them... excuse me...

HW: And I was -- my brother was too young. And, I was in the army and I couldn't go back to sign anything. So my brother-in-law's brother signed for my father to buy the farm.

MU: Uh, excuse me just a second, but I think those areas were called Zone 1, Military Zone 1, Military Zone 2, and so on. And, apparently, you were in Zone 1 in the beginning. And then you moved over -- your family moved over to Zone 2 to buy the land.

HW: Whatever they were called, yeah.

MU: Yeah. Whatever they were called. But, so they had to move a couple of times?

HW: No, they, they moved once into what they thought was a safe area, but then the line was shifted.

MU: And so they had to move to the camp after that?

HW: Yeah.

MU: Apparently, you weren't able to help them?

HW: No. No, we were at war and I was in the army, so no way to get home.

MU: No way. Uh-huh, okay.

HW: Yeah.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.