Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Ted Hamachi Interview
Narrator: Ted Hamachi
Interviewer: Kirk Peterson
Location: West Covina, California
Date: March 4, 2010
Densho ID: denshovh-hted-01-0011

<Begin Segment 11>

RP: Did you know when you were put on the train where you were going to end up when you left Pomona?

TH: I think there was rumors as to where we were going but we did get on some old dilapidated dusty coach cars that was used for transporting us to different camps. I don't remember having the shades pulled down all the time but I know that that was the first train ride in my life. I was sort of enthused about taking a trip on by train. We went through the southern route and whether it was Union Pacific or Southern Pacific, I don't know, I don't remember that part. We went toward El Paso, we went through Yuma, over the Colorado River, before then we went through Palm Springs, in Inyo. We kept going south and we had to pull off sometimes in a side track to let an express go by, there was a lot of that. It was waiting and anticipating to get to Heart Mountain. Everybody wants to get there. I found out that in the olden days if you went to the take a crap, that there is no holding tank. When we pulled into these stations, like whereever the train had to stop, you had to go and you'd leave a mark there on the station. [Laughs] If you're at the right location, if you're at the tail end you probably go on the gravel but where it's all paved, some people went and...

RP: It was kind of a, it was just a continuous train ride, you didn't really stop overnight or anything?

TH: No, you couldn't sleep. You slept because you got tired. Then we got to El Paso, that was the furthest south and I think east that we went and then we went up through maybe, it was New Mexico, or I don't remember but, we went through Colorado and we stayed over in Denver, Colorado. Prior to getting to Denver, I think we were in the dining car, and then this colored waiter is pointing to Pikes Peak. I kept looking but I just couldn't picture Pikes Peak. By the time I was starting to look for it, we went by it already. What I remember, I'm pretty sure that when we had to eat, at least they fed us. It was no box lunch, it was in a dining car, white tablecloths and the works like that part there, the train looked sort of modern.

RP: The rest of it was antique?

TH: Uh-huh.

RP: Do you remember soldiers in the cars too?

TH: Yeah, MPs, they had armbands and stuff.

RP: And rifles?

TH: Yeah, rifles.

RP: So you weren't allowed to go from, sort of car hopping were you?

TH: No.

RP: You had to stay in your own car?

TH: Right.

RP: Unless you went to a meal.

TH: Right.

RP: Normally kids would want to just up and start running up and down the train.

TH: Yeah. But I think... I'm pretty sure that we stopped to let us stretch our legs. I'm pretty sure that they did that. That's when I saw the soldiers line up to make sure that nobody took off.

RP: You were actually allowed to go out of the train?

TH: Off in a deserted area.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.