Densho Digital Archive - Nelson Takeo Akagi Interview (denshovh-anelson-01-0011)

<Begin Segment 11>

TI: So eventually you got the orders that you had to, to leave. So what happened then, what was next?

NA: Oh, well, we kept on farming, and my brother and I went to the co-op, the Japanese American co-op was still operating next to the railroad siding, we had a warehouse, and we picked up the boxes there and distributed it in the morning of -- well, we distributed the boxes in the morning and that afternoon, I don't know, two o'clock, three o'clock, the WRA came out and said, "You're moving tomorrow."

TI: So... okay, so you, these were boxes for the tomato crops? You put the boxes for the tomato crops out in the fields? And then who was that for? Was that for the workers to, to do?

NA: Oh, yeah. Because the family members were gonna pick it, because it was ready to pick, and we, by that time, we couldn't get the Issei laborers that went from one town to the other, one crop to the other. There was no more Japanese labor, so we were gonna pick it ourselves.

TI: And so what happened to the tomatoes? Did anyone the next day pick them?

NA: Oh, I'm quite sure Mr. Womack, who bought the properties, probably, I don't know where he got the labor, but after we left, we didn't know anything about what happened to the tomato crop or the olive and orange nursery. We didn't know, but I'm quite sure they, they had maybe, like Womack probably had a son, and that son called his friend, and that friend called another friend and they all picked, picked it. But that, and we left the day after we distributed the box. But we were the only family that was told to evacuate June 21st or whatever day it was that we evacuated. We were the only Japanese American family that evacuated. There were a few families that voluntarily evacuated back in April or May, but in April or May, then they stopped "voluntary evacuation." No more Japanese Americans could leave, they had to go to camp. And that was our situation, we had to go to camp. We sold all our property in preparation to go to camp, we got our shots and whatever else we had to do, and oh, and pack our suitcase, one suitcase apiece, we packed that. And all the contraband and stuff, considered contraband, guns, cameras, radio, were already turned in to the police department, so everything was in preparation for the evacuation, and it came soon enough. But the other Japanese American families, they still were waiting to go to camp. They didn't know where they were going to go, but they were preparing to go to camp and they continued to farm. So I think Womack probably went to some Japanese farmer and says, "Hey, how do I sell my crop?" And I'm quite sure the Japanese American family helped him out in that respect. So I'm quite sure he made his two thousand dollar after one day and then some later, by finishing up picking the crop and selling the trees.

TI: So why was it that your family left before the other Japanese American families?

NA: Oh, the reason is because U&I sugar company, through the WRA, War Relocation Authority, came to Lindsay and probably some other towns, Fresno, you name it. Because they came, the U&I sugar company representative from Idaho came out and said, "We need workers. Who will help us?" And my dad, he, from day one, he just stayed inside the house, avoiding getting picked up from the FBI. He didn't go outside working or anything, because the FBIs would just come out and pick him up. But he stayed in the house ever since December 7th, because as soon as they found out that they were picking up the Isseis, he made himself invisible. And so, and so he said that only way he can avoid getting picked up by the FBI and also going to camp, when the representative from Idaho came over and said, "We need workers," my dad said, the first thing he said, that, "Let's go." And so there we were, we said, "Let's go," but even after we said, "let's go," we didn't stop farming. But Dad never came out of the house. And that's another thing, in the evening, lights were never turned on, and the doors were locked. We never did have the doors locked on the house before December 7th, and so that's why our family, being the only family that said, "We will go to Idaho," and all the rest of the Japanese American families, they just said, "We're gonna wait out for the actual evacuation to camp." But my dad didn't want to camp, so that's why we were the first ones to leave Lindsay other than those that voluntarily evacuated, and there were two or three families that voluntarily evacuated, they came to Utah, went to Colorado or somewhere.