<Begin Segment 4>

RP: So what, what triggered your removal from the Children's Home Society into Manzanar?

DB: Well, if you will recall, shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Americans were incarcerated. About a hundred and twenty thousand of us were incarcerated around the east, the west coast and we were incarcerated because anybody with Japanese blood was considered to be an "enemy alien." So this took place in about 1942, I believe. With the Roosevelt Executive Order 9066 -- I should remember those and I think that's correct -- in which the executive order gave the military branches, the government, the authority to imprison all of us. So, being that I had Japanese blood, I was incarcerated. And that's how it happened.

RP: Were you sent to the, to the Japanese orphanage in Los Angeles before you came to Manzanar?

DB: Well, there's been some question about that and I have no recollection. There were several orphanages in Los Angeles at that time. There was a Maryknoll, there was Children's Home Society, and there was the Japanese Shonien, and that was the orphanage for Japanese. And when the order came down from the government, executive order that we were all going to be incarcerated, the government picked up all of the orphans, it's my understanding, from Washington down the band that follows the seashore back into a certain depth, and if you fell into that you were incarcerated. And I fell into that so I was incarcerated.

RP: Do you recall taking a bus trip with other orphans up to the camp? Is that how you actually reached Manzanar?

DB: Yes. I recall it quite vividly. First of all there was a time in which we were all waiting for the bus. And we were having great play on the front lawn of wherever we were waiting for the buses to arrive. So that was a pretty jovial mood. Then the buses arrived and you know, I used to have livestock and when they wouldn't go I'd kind of push 'em along and encourage them to and there were some of us that were afraid of getting into that bus. And so they got pushed along. That's not a very pleasant experience to either watch or be a part of. But, we found ourselves in that situation. You also have to remember that the military police was in charge. And their, their personnel carried a billy, billy club and guns and I can only speak for my feelings, is that was a scary time. And we, instead of embraced, having the feeling of they were there to assist us, one had the feeling that they were there to control us. And this is my perception. And, I think there were other occasions where we felt this, well, where I felt the same way. Some of the people after we got into the camp would relate stories. For instance, the Matsunos, how they were taken away from their home on a midnight raid by the FBI. And, we're six and seven years old. Maybe eight. That's just very hard for us, for me to understand.

RP: So up until this time you've been with Caucasian kids. You've yourself think of yourself as Caucasian. And then suddenly you're on a bus going to Manzanar with other Japanese kids. You kind of had to confront the fact that you, your Japanese blood...

DB: Well, that didn't really... sequentially it happened slightly different. But the end result was the same. But sequentially, one early morning ,the military police arrived at the Children's Home... wherever we were. For that... I might not have been at Children's Home Society. Because they brought all of the orphans into this one area, and I'm just gonna call it a holding area, where they held us until we got onto the bus. So it took a while for them to get themselves organized. And they had to separate, separate us by age. They might have separated us also by size, I don't remember.

RP: What do you, what do you remember about the trip up to Manzanar, Dennis?

DB: Well, I didn't know anybody. I was bigger and taller than everybody else. But not knowing anybody, I had no family, I had nobody. So all I could do is sit and wonder what was happening, going to happen next. And, nobody, nobody ever took the time, unless it was in a different bus, but in the bus that I was in, nobody took the time to tell us why we were, or what was going to happen to us. The image that I saw of this was law enforcement officer with two guns. Rifle in this hand and a pistol on his, on his leg. And that was a five hour ride from L.A. to Manzanar, I believe it was five hours. And nobody ever told us. Scary.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.