<Begin Segment 17>
TI: And so you lived there for a while, and then you were saying, what happened next?
EN: Then we went to Fresno where my mother's sister was. We thought that Fresno, being in more from the coast, that we wouldn't have to go anywhere. But still, we had to move to Fresno camp.
YN: Kept moving and moving.
TI: And it was hard, too, because you had so many people.
YN: Right.
EN: I had to remember all, everybody's name and birthdays. [Laughs] Now, I can't remember.
TI: Now, why'd you have to do that? Because every time you would go someplace, they would ask those questions?
EN: You have to register. Each one has to register.
TI: And so you were kind of, it was up to you because you spoke English and could do all that.
EN: Uh-huh.
YN: Our mother said that was the hardest time of her life.
TI: When she had to keep moving around?
YN: Getting, keep the kids together and move like that.
TI: Well, and probably just the uncertainty, too, not knowing what's going to happen.
YN: Right.
TI: So your, so the family thought that if they moved to Fresno, that they'd be able to stay there, and that's why they went to Fresno. But then you ended up going to the Fresno Assembly Center.
EN: Assembly center.
TI: And then what was that like for the two of you, going to Fresno? Because there, you didn't really know very many people, it was very different. So Yoshiko, what was it like going to Fresno?
YN: Well, I just remember we were staying at our aunt and uncle's place there. Then after that, we went to the assembly center. And only thing I remember about that assembly center was that mattress made out of hay. [Laughs] Did you remember that?
EN: Yeah. They bring bedbugs. [Laughs]
TI: Oh, within the hay and all that, there was bedbugs and things?
EN: Yeah.
YN: That's all I remember about the assembly center.
EN: We didn't stay very long, we had to go to the internment camp, to Arkansas. Then we had to move again to...
YN: After that closed, huh?
EN: Yeah.
<End Segment 17> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Watsonville - Santa Cruz JACL. All Rights Reserved.