<Begin Segment 11>

MR: When did you find out you would be leaving Hood River?

HY: Oh, I don't remember that, but I would guess, Margaret, that it's probably in the newspapers, and certainly it was on the telephone posts, the city bulletin board, and so on, probably a month or so before, but see, I'm just going off the top of my head. The reason I say that is because some people says they didn't know until the 11th. I said, "That can't be right." It just doesn't make any sense to me because, for example, if you go back and look at the newspaper, it tells you that they had people from Bainbridge Island who left in March of 1942. If they left -- Bainbridge Island is in the Puget Sound -- and other people are leaving, it's in the newspapers. I say, hey, it's only a matter of time before it's going to fall on you. Generally, the rule... not the rule, the impression is that our people had at least two weeks' time, but there are many exceptions of that. For example, the Terminal Islanders had forty-eight hours, actually forty documented, forty-eight hours' notice that they had to leave. They had forewarnings that this might happen, but they had only forty-eight hours. Bainbridge Islanders had only I think one week, but they also had forewarning that it could happen. So we had forewarning, but I think we had two weeks real formal notice that we're leaving.

MR: And what assembly center did you go to?

HY: Oh, we went to the one called Pinedale Assembly Center which is near Fresno.

MR: What's foremost in your memory about Pinedale?

HY: Hot. Oh, man, it was hot. Remember, we're from the mild, cool, breezy if not wet Pacific Northwest, and this is in May which is, still relatively mild good weather actually in Hood River. So we go down 100,000 miles whatever it is to Fresno, California, and we get off a train, and man, it's like a furnace, just blazing hot. The sun is a ball of fire up there, and there's no shade. We're not dressed for that because you know what, most of us put on our good clothes to travel, you know. We weren't dressed for summer wear. God, it was hot there, yes, so everybody was sweating. It was blasted hot. And also, going off to Pinedale, I said, "Oh, god, what a bleak place this is." The only interesting thing to me was the three sides or two sides of the camp compound itself had green fig trees, and I'd never really seen fig orchard before. Well, that's kind of interesting. But the overall impression of it, man, this place is too hot for me.

MR: So the heat was a main challenge for the Oregon intern --

HY: Well, for me it was. I think for the others it may be something else, maybe the strangeness and this fear, uncertainty. But for me, the heat was the thing.

MR: And how did you spend your time in Pinedale?

HY: Well, you know Margaret, at my age, seventeen, very adaptable and thought I knew everything, and I said, "Well hey, this is a real interesting thing. I'm thrown in with four thousand other Japanese." I've never seen that many before except when we were in Japan for a visit. Well, that's very interesting. They look like me, they talk like me, they act like me, they eat like me, they stink like me, and everything else. So well, that's interesting. But you know, a bunch of girls my age, just my hormones were just beginning to pump about then, you know. So I said, "Oh, that's very interesting too." So for me, it was kind of fun. Now, I think that some Nisei, some Nikkei think it's almost a sin to admit that you could have fun in a bad situation. But human beings are intensely adaptable, and they can have fun under the most unusual circumstances, and I had fun. There were bad times of course, but lots of it was real adventuresome and exciting to me and interesting to me, and I had fun.

MR: And who in your family was at Pinedale with you?

HY: Well, my brother and his wife, pregnant wife, was in a separate unit. They had a different family, and my Uncle Renichi and Aunt Matsuyo was another separate unit. They had a different number. And then my mother, Yuka, and me was in a separate unit, so we were all in different barracks. But we're all in the same camp which is only what maybe a mile square, but this was Pinedale.

MR: And so how long were you there and then where did you go after that?

HY: Well, let's see, we were in Pinedale from May, June, July, three months, about three months, and then we were transferred in about the middle of July to Tule Lake which was a big camp just below the Oregon/California border.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.