Densho Digital Archive
Preserving California's Japantowns Collection
Title: Louie Watanabe Interview
Narrator: Louie Watanabe
Interviewers: Tom Ikeda (primary); Jill Shiraki (secondary)
Location: Sacramento, California
Date: December 8, 2009
Densho ID: denshovh-wlouie-01-0028

<Begin Segment 28>

TI: So let's talk about, because in the case of Walnut Grove, the community all didn't go to one place, they actually went to a couple, at least two different places. Do you recall how that happened in terms of, did the first people go to one place first and then the second group went to another place? Or describe...

LW: Well, the only reason I know was the town itself was all going to go to the one location, assembly center, Merced. But then the rumor was started that other assembly center was the better place to go. See, the Merced and Turlock, you had a choice there. So everybody wanted to go to Merced because it was the better, I guess, assembly center or something like that.

TI: So they had, it sounded like they were going to first go to Merced, but then pretty soon they were going to go to Turlock?

LW: Yeah. So what happened is it would be first come, first serve. And they kind of divided from the front, Walnut Grove, and the back.

TI: And so the front pretty much went to Merced and then the back went to Turlock?

LW: Yeah.

TI: Okay. So describe how the front part of town, the Japanese, how they were removed? I mean, were there busses or did you take the train, or how did you go?

LW: No, the train came. You know where that fire station is? Used to be a packing shed, the railroad runs right there, the train came there, and that's where we loaded up. But we couldn't take whatever we, you know, just one suitcase for personal.

TI: And so when you, when the train came, were there other people on the train, or were they empty cars?

LW: No, strictly Walnut Grove people. Because that went strictly right to the Merced.

TI: And on that day when the train came to pick up, pick up your family and the others, describe that. Who else was there, were there people saying goodbye to you? What was that like?

LW: Well, I didn't see too many white people come and say goodbye, maybe very few, but I didn't see no, too many Chinese either. Maybe they were happy that we were getting out. [Laughs]

TI: But then there were still some Japanese left in Back Town? Were they still there, were they there saying goodbye?

LW: You know, to me, I was a teenager, so I really don't know too much about those things.

TI: So can you remember what the train was like?

LW: Well, the train was one of those train that, not the new one, but the old train that you see on those... they had, what, something like four, five cars, though.

<End Segment 28> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.