Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Lily Kajiwara Interview
Narrator: Lily Kajiwara
Interviewer: Richard Potashin
Location: Portland, Oregon
Date: July 24, 2010
Densho ID: denshovh-klily-01-0008

<Begin Segment 8>

RP: Do you recall the day that you left the farm?

LK: No. No, I vaguely remember riding in the car at some point, but that's about all I remember.

RP: And where did you go?

LK: We went to the Portland Assembly Center, which is in North Portland. It was the livestock exposition building.

RP: Had you ever been there before?

LK: No. Oh, I had. When we were in high school we had a field trip one day, and they had a rodeo. And we had gone to see, the class had gone to see a rodeo, and I remember going there because it was a livestock building.

RP: So what were your first impressions where you saw where you were going to be living?

LK: You know, that's one of the things that I don't remember. I don't remember... it just sort of blank.

RP: Do you remember barbed wire fences or guard towers?

LK: No. Well, I've seen pictures of the buildings, and so I think, yeah, that's the place we went to. But as far as recollection of it.

RP: I've seen photographs of the building. It looked like you were all housed under one large roof in barracks?

LK: Well, it was one large room with partitions. And the partitions were probably six, seven feet, you know. But it was open on the top, so we can hear everybody. And I do remember there was only the one women's bathroom at the end of the building, and a long ways away to the bathroom. And my mom was really worried that my sister and brother, who were, I think, two and four or five, would get lost. Because living in the country where they were free to run wherever they wanted to run to, all of a sudden in this one room with all these little partitions, they would not be able to find their way home again.

RP: Like a maze.

LK: So we all a number, though.

RP: Do you remember your family number?

LK: No. It's somewhere, but I couldn't tell you right now.

RP: Some of the other memories that some folks have is about the stench from the animals that...

LK: It was hot. Every time I see the temperature go up in the hundreds, I always think of that time. And to this day, I think, they hit a record, and to this day, the time we were in there was one of the hottest in Oregon history. I think it was 104 or 105 or something. And I do remember it was hot.

RP: There was no escape for you.

LK: No escape. You could go outside, but then you eventually have to get back in again. You could go out to the yard, but it's still hot outside, too.

RP: I just wanted to back up a little bit because the day that you actually arrived at the Portland Assembly Center was supposed to be the day that you graduated?

LK: That I what?

RP: Supposed to be the day that you graduated.

LK: Oh, from high school. I don't remember. I think that graduation was the furthest from my mind. There was other things.

RP: Do you recall your last few days at school?

LK: No. No, I don't. I don't remember saying goodbye to anybody or picking up my books, I don't remember the last day.

RP: Did you ever receive your diploma in the mail?

LK: Not that I know of. I know I graduated because I went back to college and I had to have my transcripts. And I sent for them, and they went directly to the school, so evidently I did graduate. [Laughs]

RP: Did any of your, did your parents work at the Portland Assembly Center while they were there?

LK: Yes, I think my dad did. I didn't.

RP: Do you recall at all what you did with the time that you were there?

LK: No. I think those are lost days.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.