<Begin Segment 11>

TI: How about, how much notice did the family have before they had to leave? Because Bainbridge Island was the very first.

YS: Yeah, we were the very first.

TI: And so I'm wondering, by being the very first, how much did time did you have?

YS: Well, I thought it was a week or two weeks, something like that. It wasn't very long.

TI: Yeah, because all the other communities could kind of anticipate, but not Bainbridge, because you were the first one.

YS: No. They told us, they got the notice, you're going, you're going. Well, see, they come and picked us up with a truck with a soldier, I mean, there was no charges. That's what they said was bad, there was no charges. But they come and picked you up.

TI: Did people ever ask yourselves why were we the first ones to go?

YS: Because we got, there's a shipyard, all that stuff around there. See, Bremerton had a shipyard, we had a shipyard on the island, too. But then they were, shipyards and stuff were close by, so they figured that we would be the ones that do it. That's what they say, that's why we got shipped out first.

TI: Well, there was also -- and were you aware -- there was also a, it was kind of a secret listening station on Bainbridge Island, too, that they would try to intercept Japanese radio signals, and that was located, I guess, up on a hill on Bainbridge Island. Did people know anything about that?

YS: No, there was nothing like that. Just like they say they're planting some things to point a certain way and stuff, but there was nothing like that. But that's what they claimed.

TI: Oh, these kind of rumors?

YS: Yeah, rumors that they planted their crops a certain way because they're pointing... but then that was all just hearsay.

TI: Well, the Bainbridge Island, when you left the island, is one of the better-known ones because there were so many photographs that were taken, coming down the ferry, came into Seattle.

YS: Yeah. Just like some of them kids took a boat and followed the ferry out quite a ways, and they got reprimanded.

TI: So why did they do that?

YS: Well, they just wanted to follow us out and say goodbye, and they got reprimanded. They were not supposed to take off from school, too.

TI: So did any of your, like, white classmates, did they come to say goodbye?

YS: Yeah. There was quite a few people at the dock. See, it wasn't Winslow dock, it was Eagledale dock. So that was a little different. That's how far, that stuff they put up, that stuff for us, it's on Eagledale dock, not Winslow.

TI: The memorial that they have up there.

YS: Memorial, yeah.

TI: Have you seen that?

YS: Yeah, I've seen that.

TI: It's nice.

YS: It's made nice. And like I say, no nail, it's all, some of them sheds, no wood, no nails or nothing.

TI: Yeah. No, they did a really good memorial.

YS: Yeah, really made nice.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.