<Begin Segment 18>

RP: So, who drove you to, to the train station in Burbank? Do you remember?

RM: I don't remember. One of 'em. I think Kassie. That's the guy that...

RP: The bar guy?

RM: Yeah. Bar and cafe.

RP: So you boarded the train in Burbank. And were you the only family there? Do you remember...

RM: Oh no. All of 'em.

RP: The whole community?

RM: Yeah. North Hollywood... all of North Hollywood, I think. Glendale, some of 'em. Calunga Park, some of 'em, too.

RP: The valley.

RM: Yeah.

RP: Do you remember that scene at all in your mind?

RM: Oh, yeah. Rushing around. Bags, you could only take one bag with you, there's one suitcase per person. And bedding. It was hell. When you're young, you know, it's worse yet. Of course, being war it's not bad because being young, you don't understand most of it.

RP: How about your father? Did he express any emotions or feelings about leaving his home?

RM: Well, he did but he, I think he kept most of it to himself. And then my mother know about it. They stayed... we didn't know where we were gonna go and how long we were gonna stay. Get on a... I think it was a bus, yeah. I think it was buses we took up.

RP: You took buses to Manzanar?

RM: In the Mojave Desert they had a pit stop. All the gals rushing to the bushes. They were the first and then the guys. Yeah.

KP: Can we backtrack just a minute to earlier you said that the school you went to, you were like, you and your brother were like the only two Caucasians [means Japanese], and you said you know, before the war it wasn't an issue but after the war things changed. How did they change?

RM: Well, the... some of 'em changed. I guess it was the parents that changed. You know.

KP: And how did you see that or how did that affect you at school?

RM: Well, that's when we start singing the...

RP: Singing those songs. There was no attempt by the teachers to stop that or...

RM: No. It was this one guy that wanted to have, show our patriotism, I guess.

RP: Did you, did you get him after school and throw him?

RM: [Laughs] No, I was too young.

RP: But it didn't, it didn't... those songs didn't affect you, or did they?

RM: No, they didn't affect me because I didn't know what the hell they were about. They just... it was war songs and that's all I know it took on.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.