Densho Digital Archive - George M. Yoshino Interview (denshovh-ygeorge

<Begin Segment 11>

TI: Okay, so before we go to Tule, let's now talk about, how did people find out that they were going to be removed from the Bellevue area?

GY: Well, at that big proclamation that Roosevelt issued. I forgot what it was, 1099 or something like that.

TI: Executive Order 9066?

GY: Yeah.

TI: But then, so he issued that proclamation, but then they went from community to community. So in Bellevue, how did people in Bellevue find out when they were going to leave? Do you remember?

GY: That part I don't know. I think there was an order coming out, but all I know is we got orders to go, they named a date and they picked us up.

TI: And so where did they pick you up in Bellevue?

GY: Well, they had a gathering place, I think it was in Kirkland or someplace, railroad siding, and we all went there. You had your friends take you, or we had a transportation man come and pick us up and went there, whatever we can carry on our back.

TI: When you say "transportation man," what was he? Like a government official went around...

GY: No, he's a local trucker that used to take our produce to Seattle. He came out and took us there.

TI: Now, during this time, we just touched upon it earlier, you said after Pearl Harbor was when, perhaps, there was more racial tension between the whites and the...

GY: Yeah, yeah.

TI: Do you recall any incident or recall anyone saying anything?

GY: No. As far as incidents go, I don't think we had any. It was real quiet. Of course, we had a curfew on us, we couldn't go out after certain hour at night. Aside from that, we got catcalls once in a while, that's about it.

TI: How about acts of kindness? Did anyone ever go out of their way to, perhaps, help you or other Japanese in Bellevue?

GY: Oh, I don't think there was any violence or anything like that.

TI: Well, maybe not violence, but what about kindness? People doing something, a favor...

GY: Oh, yeah. Whatever we knew, whoever we knew in the community, yeah. They always, what else can they do? They didn't talk bad to us or anything like that, not that I know.

TI: But did you see anyone go out of their way to be nice to you because of what was happening?

GY: Oh, no, not necessarily. Not necessarily. But we had no harm come to us, you know. No vocal or physical violence, nothing like that.

TI: So let's go back to Kirkland when you're going to get on the train. Do you at this point know where you were going to go?

GY: To tell you the truth, I don't know, but we ended up in Fresno. [Laughs] That was hot.

TI: Well, first, describe Kirkland. Who was at Kirkland when... was it just Japanese or were some of your neighbors there?

GY: Japanese and we had soldiers standing with guns, standing guard. That's it.

TI: And so how did you feel about that when you saw them with guns?

GY: Well, kind of disappointing, you know. But being young, I don't think we felt it very much. We just had to go and go, that's about all. Of course, there were hard feelings there, but still, we had no riots or anything like that. Just took it as it came.