<Begin Segment 3>

HH: Do you remember what you were doing on December 7th when Pearl Harbor was bombed?

BO: Do I remember what I was doing on December 7th? Yes. I was on a basketball team and we were going to have a game, and I believe it was in Bakersfield.

HH: So you were playing a basketball game that day?

BO: Yes.

HH: So did you find out about it in Bakersfield or did you find out about it afterwards?

BO: When did I find out about it? I think we stopped at a restaurant and the news came out.

HH: What kinds of hardships or difficulties did your family experience at the time of evacuation?

BO: What did we experience at the time of the evacuation? Well, really, I think all the rest of the family accepted it quite well, but I was bitter. I was really bitter.

HH: And do you recall the nature of your bitterness?

BO: Yes. Do I recall the nature of my bitterness? Yes. I actually rejected my faith, Christianity, and I was determined to be a "good American" and that was the feeling that I had first.

HH: This bitterness, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but did you feel betrayed?

BO: Do I feel betrayed? Yes. I felt that I was, well, rejected. I felt devastated, really, because I was thinking primarily of material things. We lost the vineyard and actually, I think we gave it away because we paid, well, it's around six thousand dollars for it, and then we put in probably seven or eight thousand dollars of improvement that we had about a seven, at least about maybe a ten thousand dollar grape crop ready to harvest. And so a nice fellow who took us to Clovis to board the train to go to Poston, took us right by our farm. And I looked at the farm and I got bitter. Just like that, I just turned bitter. I said, "We just gave it away," and I was bitter. The last one on the train.

HH: And you went directly from Sanger to Poston?

BO: Yes.

HH: Did you go to an assembly center?

BO: No, I did not go through an assembly center. I went directly to Poston.

HH: How long were you in Poston? Poston was in Arizona. How long were you in Poston?

BO: How long was in Poston? Off and on, I would say about fifteen months. I went into Poston and in the following fall, I went to Idaho to help harvest vegetables and fruit. I went back into camp and went out the following spring.

HH: To, again, to harvest vegetables?

BO: To harvest vegetables? No. This time I came to Philadelphia and it was primarily to seek relocation for the family to help seek relocation.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 1994 JACL Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.