<Begin Segment 30>

RP: Were you aware of the initial evacuation order that covered the Bainbridge Island group, March 24th?

VI: No. All we know is we were gonna be evacuated.

RP: And when did, when did you actually, when did that happen?

VI: I think it was in May. Bainbridge Island went in March, was it, April? Early May I think we went. And we went to the, you know, Puyallup Assembly Center.

RP: Where did you, where did you assemble to go to Puyallup?

VI: Well, they had certain meeting places where you had to go, and they picked you up and took you there. And the Puyallup Assembly Center, which we called "Camp Harmony," -- [laughs] -- was the fairgrounds and three parking lots. Now, we had Area A, B and C, which was the parking lots, and Area D was the fairgrounds.

RP: A, B and C were the...

VI: Parking lots, right.

RP: And then they constructed barracks.

VI: Barracks on there.

RP: On those parking lots?

VI: Parking lots, and they constructed barracks inside the fairgrounds and the racetracks. Our barracks was under the Ferris, not the Ferris wheel, but the...

RP: Grandstand?

VI: The Big Dipper, the...

KP: Roller coaster?

VI: Roller coaster, roller coaster, right under the roller coaster, right.

RP: Right under the roller coaster?

VI: Yeah. [Laughs] Well, it was right by there. And then the barracks are just one long building, it was just partitioned into certain level, so you could hear all the way down, up and down the place. So you had no privacy at all.

RP: And then, so people were also put in horse stalls there.

VI: Yeah, 'cause underneath the grandstands where the horse stalls were, they just, you know, cleaned it out, made rooms for... and they had the straw blankets, I think, in there.

RP: One, just one question, I think, hope we can get it in before the tape ends, but what was the atmosphere like when you met to go to Puyallup? Whether your parents were very stoic about it or not...

VI: Yeah, they were stoic. They didn't express too much one way or the other, I mean, they were very...

RP: How about your sisters?

VI: They were probably more... I don't know what word to use, but I think it affected them more, so it was harder for them to accept.

<End Segment 30> - Copyright © 2007 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.