<Begin Segment 4>

HH: And so your husband expressed some of his concerns about internment, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like because of the things that he said, he was selected to go to Tule Lake?

LI: Yes.

HH: What were conditions like in Tule Lake?

LI: [Laughs] When we got to Tule Lake, our section was really fenced in, rather fenced in and all. But we had a terrible time trying to locate where we were supposed to go, because everything was such a commotion during that time, probably because the people that were there before in Tule Lake didn't want the group from Manzanar going to Tule Lake. So we have quite a problem at that time, which, I mean, I truly don't know what the problem was or anything.

HH: Lillian, are you saying that before you got there, there was a lot of excitement at Tule Lake before you arrived?

LI: Before, yes.

HH: And when you arrived there, the way you described it, it sounds like you were also in a separate area of Tule Lake, fenced off from the rest.

LI: Yes, fenced off from the rest. My folks lived on the other end of the camp, but they were not allowed to see us or come when we went there, until a certain amount of time. Then they were allowed to come and visit us, and I was able to visit them, but for a while, we were restricted from visiting any of the families on the other side.

HH: Did you have, moving, did you have a sense of being a prisoner at that time?

LI: Yes.

HH: And even more so than...

LI: Right, than Manzanar.

HH: Yes. And did you have any idea why you deserved that kind of treatment?

LI: Well, truly, when we got there, the convenience was very poor. It wasn't like Manzanar, and we thought that they were treating us as though we were a group going, you know, because we have to go there, and we weren't treated that well, but we survived through all that until we were all settled there.

HH: As I understand this, you were, your family happened to be Japanese Americans.

LI: Yes.

HH: Yet you were made to feel as if you were enemies when you went to Tule Lake?

LI: Yes.

HH: Is that correct?

LI: Yes.

HH: But you did not understand why you were being treated this way.

LI: Yes. I truly didn't know what was going... really, I didn't know what was going on there.

HH: At this point, how many children did you have?

LI: At this point, I have four children.

HH: Four children.

LI: So that means that when I left home, I had, my third son was born. He was only five months. The second camp we went, my third son was seven months. Then when I moved out here, my daughter was six months. So I had babies the whole trip, the three trips I had to make.

HH: When you were living in Tule Lake, you had three children, is that correct?

LI: No, four children.

HH: Four children. The oldest being about...

LI: He was ten years old, and youngest being about five months old, and youngest being about five months old.

HH: Right.

LI: Because my fourth son was born in Manzanar.

HH: I see.

LI: And my daughter was born in Tule Lake.

HH: I see. You went to school -- going back in history now -- you went to school in San Juan Bautista?

LI: Right.

HH: But you were married in Los Angeles.

LI: Right, in 1935.

HH: '45?

LI: '35.

HH: '35. Did you move to Los Angeles, then become married, or did you get married and then move to Los Angeles?

LI: No, I was still living in... at that time, we were living in Gilroy, only about twenty miles from San Juan Bautista.

HH: Yes.

LI: And I married and moved to Los Angeles.

HH: Did you work when you were in Los Angeles?

LI: No.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 1994 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.