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LT: Well, the Japanese American community in Hood River met at the train station. And you left on May 13, 1942. What did you see there, and what was it like?
SA: Well, we're always surprised to see so many people of Japanese descent at the train depot. I thought the Japanese in Hood River consisted of people in Barrett and Frankton, Oak Grove, that was it. 'Cause, you know, in Hood River at that time, they had, well, the town, high school, Odell, Pine Grove... no, not Pine Grove, Odell, Parkdale. They all had separate high schools, so that's the way it was. I didn't know many Japanese outside of Barrett, Oak Grove, and Frankton. That's what surprised me the most, to see so many.
LT: What was the feeling there?
SA: Feeling there, well, it was, you didn't know where you were gonna be headed for. It just... unable to fathom what's gonna happen. You just... I remember on the train, every time we went through a populated area, we had to pull the shade down. The MP came around, made sure we pull the shade down. I don't know why that was for, but that's the way it was.
LT: So can you talk about what the train looked like? And then you mentioned the MP, the military police, what it was like to board the train?
SA: Well, It was not a happy feeling. It was a one-way ticket, that's the only way he'd go.
LT: Where did you sit?
SA: It was all coach, you know. So they, you just sat where you found a place, march in.
LT: Were there people who came to see you off?
SA: Well, you know, I remember seeing some Caucasian girls, classmate of Japanese girls, I don't know. I think they were a classmate of this Norimatsu girl from Hood River. She lived right in Hood River there. But I used to have a couple of classmates write to me at Pinedale and Tule Lake, 'til their father told them, "Better not do it anymore." You'd be considered a spy or something, you know.
LT: Well, thank you for sharing those recollections.
<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.