Densho Digital Archive - George Yoshinaga Interview (denshovh-ygeorge

<Begin Segment 11>

AL: How long were you at Santa Anita?

GY: Three months.

AL: Three months. And then how did you find out you were going to go to Wyoming?

GY: We didn't even know we were going. They said, okay, came down and said, you guys pack your grips, we're moving out. But packing our grips are nothing 'cause we didn't take anything to camp to begin with which was a big problem for us because we went from California to Wyoming where the weather was so much different, you know.

AL: Did you have any, what, I mean, what kind of rumors were there about what was going to happen to you when you moved? Did you hear any?

GY: There was all kinds of rumors, that they were going to ship us back to Japan. But then being at that age and being more of a carefree, you know, don't give a hoot type, all of us of my age between eighteen and twenty-one, we had an entirely different outlook. I don't know if I mentioned but today that age group people no one ever asked them for their opinion. In fact, because I'm in the newspapers I'm the only one expressing that point of view.

AL: And that's why we want to interview you.

GY: [Laughs]

AL: No I mean seriously, because that I've heard a lot of people say that they agree with what you write or that they respect that you say things that nobody else would. And if we don't get a broad range of viewpoints, that's not history, that's propaganda. if you only talk to people who think the same thing so that's why I have never tried so hard to talk to anybody as I have... it's been like nailing Jell-o to a wall but because you do have a different outlook which is exactly why --

GY: The thing is I can't speak for the people that were more in what they call the West Coast zone like Manzanar and Tule Lake and even inland Arizona, Gila and Poston, but I think we had more freedom in Jerome, Rohwer, Heart Mountain, Topaz, Minidoka.

AL: Why was that?

GY: We weren't in the so-called zone that they tried to evacuate the Japanese Americans from. So they talk about barbed wire fences, guys in our camp, they took pliers and cut the fence, nobody repaired it. So if we wanted to walk out into the desert we used to do that, you know, go rabbit hunting.

AL: Did you go by train to Heart Mountain?

GY: Train, yeah.

AL: What do you remember of that train ride?

GY: I think that was one of the most bitter experiences because as I said there was no Pullman, no sleeping quarters, we all sat up, and the toilet facilities were miserable. When you take that many people, it's not like going from Los Angeles to San Francisco, you know, you have to live under those conditions.

AL: Did you have MPs on that train?

GY: Oh, yeah.

AL: How many?

GY: But that's the other thing. The MPs that, maybe they checked them out, but they weren't the kind picture they draw is like they weren't that hostile towards us. And I always felt that they were there mostly to protect us from people that might want to attack us from outside when they hear that we're coming through their town. 'Cause I remember when we got to Salt Lake we were parked there for about five hours and there were people coming out and screaming and yelling at us, you know.

AL: What were they yelling?

GY: The usual things, "You dirty Japs," and all this kind of business.

AL: Did you all have the curtains down at the time?

GY: Well, a lot of 'em just had it up peering out to see what's going on.

AL: How many people were there yelling at you?

GY: In Salt Lake I would say there was a couple of dozen people.

AL: And do you know why they were holding you there for five hours?

GY: Because we were on a train that was a special, you know, it wasn't scheduled, so every time we got to an area where there was a scheduled train coming through, they would side track us and we'd have to wait 'til that train passed by.

AL: When did you find out that Heart Mountain was going to be your destination?

GY: I don't know about other people, but when we got on and somebody said we're going to Wyoming and it may sound silly but I said, "Where in the heck is Wyoming?" [Laughs]