Densho Digital Archive
New Mexico JACL Collection
Title: Roy Ebihara Interview
Narrator: Roy Ebihara
Interviewer: Andrew Russell
Location: Roswell, New Mexico
Date: March 7, 2008
Densho ID: denshovh-eroy-02-0021

<Begin Segment 21>

AR: All right, so in January of 1942, your family got word that they would be dispersed to the Topaz Relocation Camp where your brother lived, right? Or where your brother had been sent.

RE: No, that was December.

AR: Oh, December.

RE: About the middle of December, we were apparently, after almost a year had lapsed, and obviously the authorities here, for reasons that it might have been too costly, and how long we would be detained here was a major question mark, I would imagine. I think secondly, all these major relocation camps were now established in the interior parts of the west, so that that was an opportunity for us to be released to these camps of our choosing.

AR: Another thing, there was the issue of education. You were not allowed to --

RE: That's correct. That was deprived, and, of course, that was on the minds of these authorities, as to it's time for these kids to get some education. So a lot of these issues were compounded issues that needed to be resolved.

AR: What was your reaction when you first got to Topaz, Utah? What did you see and what was that like, coming from this place?

RE: First of all, we left here, and they transported us to the railway station in Carrizozo, which is about twenty miles from here or so. And then we went on a train. It was late in the day, and I recall it was the most horrifying experience to be seeing a camp, a concentration camp, with barbed wire fences, high fences, and military guards on watchtowers and machine guns. It was a frightening experience. But to see the hundreds and thousands of Asian faces was just something that we had never experienced in our lives. It was a horrifying experience, so to speak.

AR: And then you were back in a landscape that was pretty much like Clovis in its appearance, right?

RE: Oh, it was even worse. It was part of the desert of Utah.

AR: So did you long to be back here at this camp?

RE: Oh, absolutely. Our family talked about, "Oh, gosh, I wish could be living in Old Raton Ranch again." We all missed it, but obviously adults said, "It's not possible." We had a one-year vacation. How many kids could say they had eleven months of vacation?

AR: Up in the mountains. Up in the mountains?

RE: Yes, in the mountains.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2008 New Mexico JACL and Densho. All Rights Reserved.