<Begin Segment 19>

RP: And, so you, what do you remember about the, the actual evacuation? The day, the time, the feeling, do you have any memories of that?

TI: No, all I can remember is that that's the government order and we have to get out. There's nothing we can do about it. And just take what we can take and the rest, we'll just have to throw away.

RP: And what do you remember taking with you?

TI: Well, what Mr. Masuda took out of the store was about all and what little we could put in my, in my sedan wasn't much. Just our beddings, you know, the beds and everything else is we left behind.

RP: And did you, you next were sent to the Tulare Assembly Center. And how did you travel there?

TI: We were given a certain date to be at, I forgot where the place was. So I think we hired a man with a truck and that's when they, all of us was transported there to board the train. And, yeah, we went to Tulare.

RP: Did you pick up the train at Union Station?

TI: No, I don't think it was the Union Station. I think it was just a... gosh, I can't even remember where it was but it's not a station, no. It's just a location I would say.

RP: And were there other people as well who were on that train?

TI: Oh yes, uh-huh. Yeah.

RP: A large group.

TI: A large group, uh-huh.

RP: And you had your two suitcases?

TI: Yeah. Yeah, we got to Tulare that night I guess. And I don't even remember how long we stayed in Tulare.

RP: And what was Tulare like for you?

TI: Oh, Tulare was, well... nothing, I don't know if they had the camp site for some other purpose but we were assigned a place there and I don't know whether it was a barbed wire fence around that place but we'd sit outside and the American people would just walk by next to our barrack.

RP: There were... you remember fences around the camp?

TI: I believe there must have been fences, yeah.

RP: You mentioned to me when we talked about Tulare Assembly Center, you said, "We were doing nothing, we had nothing to do."

TI: No, we didn't do anything and...

RP: You just sat around for six months?

TI: Yeah just, just sit around, uh-huh.

RP: Did you at any point in time during that six months feel bitter, angry at being an American citizen and being treated this way?

TI: No, it never came to my mind that as an American citizen we were being treated like that. We were, our folks were from Japan so we figured we were just "excess baggage."

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.