<Begin Segment 7>

RM: So let's talk about when she found out that she had to pack up and go to Manzanar. What was that process like?

PS: You know, she was always vague about that. Because I said, "Well, when you went there, what did you take?" She said, "Oh, they told you just to bring some comfortable clothes, don't bring any of your fancy clothes." Of course, my mother did, because you never know when you may need nice clothes. And then... 'cause that's why in that one picture you see her.

RM: She has that beautiful outfit, yes.

PS: Well, she brought that with her. And she doesn't remember... all she remembers is taking the train, she used to put the shades down, and she said and then getting on a bus with the shades down, and then arriving. And I said, "Was Ben there?" And she says, "I don't know." She said, "I don't remember." I said, "Were you there alone?" She just would never tell me. Because I think a lot of it she did forget because it wasn't good. She used to always say that to me, "There's nothing to remember." She said it wasn't a good time. And I said, "Well, do you remember anything?"

RM: Did she ever talk about how she felt when she first saw Manzanar?

PS: She never said anything, she just said that it was dusty. Dusty, windy, that's all she ever talked about was the dust and the wind.

RM: What block did she get assigned to live in?

PS: Block 20. I think the Kunitomis were there in Block 20.

RM: Yes, they were, yeah.

PS: That's what I'm saying, I think she went with that whole group.

RM: They left at the same time, then.

PS: Yeah.

RM: Do you know if they left from Union Station in Los Angeles?

PS: It would have had to have been Union Station.

RM: Did she describe to you what her barracks room was like when they first got there?

PS: Well, I know that Uncle Ben was there and her mother, and my mother, so I think it was just the three of them.

RM: Did they have other people living in the room with them?

PS: Well, it would have been partitioned off, but their family was just those three people. And then I think Hide and Frank, because Hide had just had a baby, so they must have been in another barrack, but not in the same one. And I think the same thing with Shizu, she had a child, a daughter, and her husband, and my mom never says that they all lived together. And then my mother to get married, so she said she went to live with his family, though she did come back to her own family.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2015 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.