<Begin Segment 21>

TI: So let's talk about when you do have to leave Fresno. So where did you go from...

RN: We went from Fresno Assembly Center, and from there, we went to, they sent us to Arkansas.

TI: Okay, so let's talk first, the Fresno Assembly Center. So it's you, your husband and your daughter? So is it just three of you living together?

RN: Yeah.

TI: So what were the living conditions for the three of you? So your daughter is about how old right now? She's quite young. She's about, what, one or --

RN: She was already about six year old.

TI: Oh, she's that old now? Okay, so she's six years old.

KN: No, about two or three, Mom.

RN: Oh, yeah.

TI: Okay, so she's, like, two years old, two or three, so tell me what it was like having a young child at the assembly center. Here's a picture.

RN: Oh, yeah.

KN: Tell Tom, Ma, about being on the train and having to go from the assembly center to Arkansas. They had blinders, right?

RN: Yeah.

KN: But didn't you peek and you saw signs that some of the people wrote?

RN: I guess, I don't know.

KN: Remember? It said, like, "Get out of Fresno, never come back to California"? Didn't you ask Baachan, weren't you concerned what was gonna happen to you guys? Do you remember riding on the train?

RN: Yeah.

KN: What was that like? Were you scared, were you not scared?

RN: Yeah, well, they had those black curtains, so you couldn't see outside.

TI: When you were at the Fresno Assembly Center, did anyone come visit you when you were there? Like any of your, maybe your customers or...

RN: Friend.

TI: A friend?

RN: Uh-huh.

TI: And who was the friend that came?

RN: Yeah, they came. McClurgs... not McClurg, the Ravens, they came.

TI: Can you describe the meeting? What was that like when they came? Where did you meet, and what can you remember from that?

RN: I can't.

KN: I remember when we walked to the Fresno Assembly Center, Ma, Dad pointed out to one of the horse stalls, he goes, "That's where we used to live." What was your living conditions like at Fresno Assembly Center? Did you have to live in one of those little...

RN: Yeah, yeah, with the hays, with the hays.

KN: The smell?

RN: Yeah.

KN: Where the animals lived, right? Was there any other Fresno families who lived around you that you remember?

RN: I don't remember.

KN: Well, you remember the hay and...

RN: Yeah.

KN: Did you have to make your own bedding?

RN: With that straw, get a straw, and that becomes your mattress, yeah.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2010 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.