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LP: So how was your family physically moved from the lumber yard and mill to the assembly center? What was the... because it sounds like you were fairly remote, what was the setup?

EY: Yeah. Once we got on the army truck, then they drove us down to the train station, and I don't know which train station it was to this day. And all I know is the military police sitting on the outside so that I guess we wouldn't get out of the truck. I don't know how we could have done that, but anyway, yeah, they were there on each side. And they had guns, and I guess we transferred to the train and it was really dirty. Because I was a junior in high school, they decided I could be the so-called train monitor to make sure that everyone had a seat, and if we were to eat, that we would all be going to the so-called dining car to eat. And we couldn't use the bathroom facility on the train when it stopped, but while it was moving, we were able to use it. And I think most of us all wore our good clothes, really regretted it because the train was so dirty, it was a vintage old train, and we had one of those old lamps on the inside, you know, that kind of a thing. But we rode it from Washington all the way through Oregon, all the way through California down a place called Pinedale by Fresno. And each time when the train went through the city, you'd hear this ting-ting-ting because the arms were coming down. And we'd all say, most of the kids would say, "Hey, we're in some kind of a city." And, of course, we had to pull our shades down so no one would see us. And we'd look, and finally when we went to California, we saw the palm tree, that's when we realized, hey, we're in California, that kind of thing. All of us couldn't believe it because up in Washington, you don't see palm trees, even in Oregon. And so when we saw the palm trees, we're someplace in California, I'll tell you that. Sure enough, when the train stopped, it was down by Fresno. And as I grew older, I didn't want to talk about it, the government spent all that money just to bring us to this place, all the way down to California, all stupid, all that expense. But anyway, there we were.

LP: What feelings were you experiencing when you saw the army truck pulling up and saw people with guns and all of that?

EY: Oh, gee, it just surprised me, shocked me, we're no criminals, we're not criminals, we are just citizens just like everyone else, we never did anything bad. Why are you people there with their bayonets ready and like this, in the end, to make sure that we wouldn't get out of the truck. All this is going down through my mind. We never talked it verbally. I don't know about other people, but that's how I felt. And we're American citizens, we're born here, we're raised here, and just like you people, and why are you treating us, just because the color of our face is so different? That's how we surmised it, but there was nothing we could do. Of course you know, when you talk about it today, young people will say, "Why didn't you fight, why didn't you do something?" We couldn't because there was no one to support us, no one, they could care less. So there we were.

LP: What was the attitude or demeanor of the military that was there in transporting people by truck and on the train? Some people that I've interviewed remember a very stern...

EY: Quite a few were that way, then there were others who really felt sorry for us. Some were very nice, they tried to help you. And also I could see that they were looking at their superiors, and I'm thinking well maybe they're not supposed to be doing that, but they're doing it because of their own feeling. I don't know whether on the whole they were all that way, but...

LP: Were the instructions to keep the shades down for any particular reason?

EY: We were told, "We don't want the public to see all you Japs' face," that's what they told us. So I'm thinking, "What difference does it make?" We're on a train, we can't go anywhere. But that's what we were told.

LP: And what was the concern of seeing people on the train? Do you feel that that was because they didn't want, they were concerned about espionage and all this, or was it just that they didn't want the public to know that this is happening to people?

EY: Well, at the time I really didn't give much thought to it, except the fact is I guess the government doesn't want the general public to be aware that they are doing this to one type of group of people. That was my feeling then, but as I got older and both espionage and all that, and also letting the general public not know that that's my own interpretation.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2015 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.