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RP: Bob, can you share with us the story about those rabbits that you had?

BF: Oh. [Laughs] Yeah, I think I was telling you that we... I had some rabbits. We had a dog and, and it didn't really dawn on me that we were, we were actually gonna go somewhere 'til came time to leave, the morning. And at the last second I said, "These rabbits are in this cage. What am I gonna do with them?" And I hadn't thought ahead in terms of what would happen to them so I, I just opened the door and let 'em loose. And I don't know where... and the dog. What are you gonna do with the dog? So it could, it could be that the rabbits became dog food, who knows. But, when you only have four days, you're leaving school, you're... they're saying, well, even though you have two suitcases, one is for the family and one is for yourself. What are you gonna, what are you gonna take with you? You don't know where you're goin', and you don't even know why you're goin'. And you don't know how long you're gonna be there. What, what's happening here? Just a lot of confusion. So you don't even think in terms of pets. You're thinking first of all, I guess, of yourself and what's happening, what's happening. So, it was a very confusing and disturbing time for all. Just sad. Shouldn't have happened.

RP: And the government sent you to the Merced Assembly Center?

BF: Yeah. We, we were put on a train to Merced Assembly Center, Merced... it's, it was a fairgrounds, county fairgrounds. There they had built, very hastily built, some barracks and we were fortunate to live in the barracks. There were some people who ended up in horse stalls that weren't very clean and weren't... they whitewashed some of those buildings, the inside walls, but the stench was still there.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.