<Begin Segment 3>

JO: All I know is on April 2nd we were there on a railroad track siding, you know, railroad tracks.

KL: Where was it?

JO: I don't know. I thought it was somewhere under the First Street Bridge, or under one of those bridges. There's a lot of siding, the tracks, railroad tracks. It's still there. And so I asked my mother, "Why aren't we at Union Station? Why can't we catch the train at Union Station?" but she never answered. And I guess there were soldiers there, too, marching up and down with their rifles.

KL: Did that register in your memory at all?

JO: It did, but it didn't make that much of an impression because I was a girl. I think boys would have taken more notice of soldiers than me.

KL: Did you have any interaction with them?

JO: No. I just hung by my mother.

KL: So are you aware if there was any public building or any reason for that location where you caught the train?

JO: No, I have no idea why we were there. I don't even know how we got there, whether somebody picked us up or whether we went on the bus. Maybe... I have no idea. All I know is we were standing there at the side of the railroad.

KL: How many other people were there?

JO: It was crowded, there were a lot of people there. So everybody boarded the train to go to Manzanar. But I guess a lot of the people, I find out later that the Bainbridge Island people went to Manzanar, 'cause I went on that trip and I found out...

KL: Oh, with the JANM conference?

JO: Yes, that they traveled by train for two days or three days, got off the train and got on the bus and went to the train station to board the train to Manzanar. I thought that was pretty unusual, that was really shocking to me.

KL: Do you recall anything about the people's demeanor, or kind of what it was like to be there boarding the train? Did it take a long time, were people sad, were they impatient? I know there were cameras in some cases where people were boarding. Was there anybody there to say goodbye, or what do you recall about sort of the scene?

JO: Well, nobody came to see us, that's for sure, to say goodbye. We just boarded the train. But I don't know if it was... I know all the trains seemed to be filled once we were seated. But I just don't remember that. I don't remember how people reacted, because I just was not aware of it. Really didn't... was not cognizant of any of that.

KL: What do you remember about the ride to Manzanar?

JO: It was long. And I don't remember about the shades, I guess the shades were pulled, but I don't really remember too much. I think it took a long time to get to wherever we ended up.

KL: What time of day did you depart? Do you have a sense for that?

JO: It was, I thought it was morning, but I really don't know. It could have been later in the morning, but I know wherever we went, wherever we arrived, whether it was Lone Pine, I guess it was Lone Pine, we got off the train and we got on... we had to wait a while and then got on army transport trucks, and they took us to Manzanar on trucks. And I remember, I said, "What happened to our luggage?" Because all the luggage was being taken on a separate truck, because you couldn't pile everybody and their luggage when there was only benches on the side of these... there were two row of benches on each side of the truck, and that's how we were transported.

KL: Did you see any local people along the road or at the train station or anything?

JO: No. And by the time we got on the truck, it was nighttime, because this was April 2nd, so I guess it must have got dark fairly early.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2013 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.