<Begin Segment 5>

KO: Let's talk about World War II, Pearl Harbor specifically. Do you remember where you were when you heard Pearl Harbor was...

RO: I don't have any recollection of where I was at that time, but I do remember where we boarded the train on First Street.

KO: To go where?

RO: To Santa Anita.

KO: Do you remember what you packed in your suitcase to take with you?

RO: Gee, I really don't remember, because it was a pretty sudden thing.

KO: So you just took your essentials.

RO: Yeah, my mother packed everything and then we went to the train.

KO: In Santa Anita, did you stay in...

RO: We stayed in the stables. That's why they sent us to Santa Anita. They put everybody in the stables.

KO: You actually stayed in a stable?

RO: Uh-huh. Correct.

KO: What was that like?

RO: Oh, it's pretty good for a stable. [Laughs]

KO: Did it have straw on the floor?

RO: No, they cleaned it up quite well, but you still could tell it was a horse stable.

KO: Were you comfortable there?

RO: We lived in, we slept on cots, army cots.

KO: So there was some privacy?

RO: There was privacy, you had your own stable.

KO: How long did you stay there?

RO: Our stay at Heart Mountain -- I mean, Santa Anita, was very short. From there they transported us to Heart Mountain.

KO: By train?

RO: By train.

KO: Do you remember anything about the train ride?

RO: I know there, all I remember is there was another family in there with us, and it was a relatively short ride from Santa Anita to Heart Mountain.

KO: And you were about eleven years old?

RO: Ten, ten years old.

KO: And what were your first thoughts when you arrived at Heart Mountain?

RO: Well, kind of mixed feelings. To be uprooted from your home and put in a strange place wasn't that good, but as a kid, you make a lot of friends and we played a lot.

KO: How did your parents feel?

RO: My dad didn't care to stay there, so we tried to move out two times. The first time we moved out, my parents cooked for this ranch, they cooked for all the ranch hands. And then they called us back to Heart Mountain, then we stayed for a while, then my dad said he wanted to move so they let us move to Denver, Colorado.

KO: Did your father have a job in Denver?

RO: No, he didn't have a job, but he did gardening and my mother did domestic.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2004 Densho and The Japanese American Museum of San Jose. All Rights Reserved.