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VO: So when, so that was in April that he was taken. So then what happened, so your family that was remaining in Seattle went to...

EO: Well, we started packing because we had to go to Puyallup. And was trying to remember, we were in Puyallup for a few months, I think through around September, I think, Puyallup Fairgrounds. And luckily we didn't have to live in the horse stable, the animal stables like some of my friends did.

VO: Where did you live?

EO: We lived in Area C which was kind of a hastily built area, it was called a block, Block C. And then they had barracks that were open on the top, but they did have walls. You could hear almost everything next door. [Laughs]

VO: What was it like leaving your school in Seattle?

EO: The principal was very sympathetic. We went to see her individually, all the Japanese kids. And she talked to us. We saw her individually, and I can still remember, she kissed each of us right on our forehead. She was that sympathetic to us. And in fact, when we were in camp, she came to visit, but they wouldn't let her in. We had to visit through the barbed wire. She was a very, very nice person, very strict, strict disciplinarian.

VO: And you had mentioned the memory of her kissing you on the forehead.

EO: Yes, because our parents never kissed us. You know how Isseis, they don't show their emotions like that. So that, to me, was really something new.

VO: Do you remember much of that time in Puyallup?

EO: Puyallup, oh, yes, I do remember Puyallup very well. No privacy. You go to take a shower, and there's no partitions. You go to the, they call them the latrines, there's no partition. You're just sitting on these holes. It was very lack of privacy. And then I used to go help my mother do the laundry on a scrub board. Can you imagine doing all those diapers? See, my kid brother was still in diapers, he was only a few months old. So it was a lot of work for her.

VO: And did you hear from your father right away?

EO: No, not right away. We didn't know where, what happened to him or where he was.

VO: What went through your mind as a child at that time?

EO: I don't know what I thought. I just kind of felt lonely, and my father wasn't there. There were so many of us kids that you really couldn't be lonely.

VO: So you remember that time as pretty... how would you characterize...

EO: It wasn't fun, we just put up with it. We didn't have school. One of the, I guess some people tried to find activities for us, and I remember taking kind of an art class from this lady. Other than that, there was nothing really.

VO: And you knew that it was temporary, that you would be moving on?

EO: Yeah, I think we were told that it was temporary. One of the things that I really remember was when I was in Seattle, I used to go to the library on a regular basis. And one of the librarians came, and I still remember that, she came and I remember the book that she read to us: Horton Hatches the Egg, Dr. Seuss. [Laughs] That was one of the books she read. More recently I wrote to the Seattle Public Library and told them how much we appreciated that. I'm sure that librarian was no longer around, but I sent a donation and said that meant so much to us.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.