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Play MovieTranscription below by: Jessica M (2010)
Edited transcription by: Joseph Werhan (intern)
Please report errors to: info@tellingstories.org
Preparing to Leave
Can you remember anything in particular that you didn't want to leave behind?
We didn't, those were not economically good days, so no. I can't say—nothing for us. There were a lot of families that, well, for one thing, strawberries. They used to ship the strawberries through a broker, but the broker would pay for all the fertilizer and all the other things you had to have before the season’s harvesting, and so all of a sudden we are in debt. We never got the chance to harvest our crops. Maybe a couple had some Filipino neighbors that helped them out and picked, but even then, all of the sudden, we had a shipyard on Bainbridge Island that was paying such high wages they were tempted to work there.
Can you describe what you took with you to Manzanar?
Whatever we could keep in two suitcases. So, actually, maybe another pair of shoes and underwear and maybe a coat and we wore our letterman sweaters and that was it.
How did you find out that you were going to Manzanar?
Somebody from Seattle came over. First, he came over - my recollection is wrong, but I thought he had liquor on his breath, but that's what I thought, okay. He said, "You guys are gonna have to leave in a week." Then, a few days later, the army came over and they tacked up these little posters saying that this is an evacuation order. They posted them up everyplace and then we found out that we are going to have to go. Actually, the community, up until now, was really run by our parents who were from Japan, but when this came about the older Nisei—the young kids that were here—suddenly were asked upon to be the leaders. So they're the ones that talked to the army. A few of them talked to the publisher of the one newspaper on Bainbridge Island called the Bainbridge Review.
Had you been doing your work there, at that point?
I used to, yes. After they published the paper, my job was to go out and sweep out the shop.
You were already pretty familiar with...)
Yes, and then one day, after they put out the paper, maybe five or six leaders of the community went out and talked to the publisher of the paper. The publisher of the paper—editorially—put out a paper telling the people not to get all excited. “These people didn't do the bombing on Pearl Harbor so don't..." And he told them that when this is all over, everything will be fine otherwise. As it turned out, we stayed in camp for three years, and things changed.
Were you at an age where you were old enough—as somebody born here—to be called upon to help your parents deal with the army?
Yes, I was seventeen and a half, my brother was probably about nineteen. In the camps, of course, everything was provided for you. That was quite a shock, when we went, we thought we were going to a resort somewhere. You know the way they talked. "You're gonna only be gone for a couple weeks and something. You'll be back." It didn't turn out that way. Suddenly, they were gonna keep us for, as it turned out, two or three years, and that was quite an experience.
Could you go back and tell us what you can remember about what you personally did, and how you helped your parents wrap up their house and prepare to leave?
We lived in the community school house—or it was a community hall—and then on the back of it was the school house and the living quarters for us and all we did was left everything as it was and locked it up because they said they were gonna have guards come over and stay and check the place. They encouraged other Japanese to bring their things to the hall and leave them there, because they had two retired sea captains on guard. They came to the hall everyday for about maybe six months and then they did away with the plan. So, as far as we were concerned, we didn't do anything. We just made our beds that morning and had my hard suitcases ready. We didn't have running water. We had a well right outside, we covered it up, that was it.
Did your father do anything to close his business?
My father, I have to say something of that. My dad had the strawberry farm, but he also taught school there. I can still remember, the sheriff on the island, he'd go around and check all the Japanese homes. He would come around acting—he did a good job of acting that he was—and he had a little too much to drink. At that time Japanese could make sake. He'd go and say, "Mr. Ohtaki, you got any sake here?" My dad would—it was like a broken record—"(Mr. Seward), you know we are a Christian family. We do not have alcoholic drink. You should not be coming around like that. You're a person that we want to respect and you shouldn't be... It was like a broken record, he'd come around every so often, just to check, and he'd go around the other [points]. Some of the other Japanese families that made it would give him sake, but they might be the ones that had dynamite sticks there too, to expand their farm. I think, because my dad went through that same play—it was always the same thing—"Oh, here he goes again" and "Mr. (Seward) is gonna walk out here." But then Mr. (Seward)—when there was a time later on when the Japanese were able to come out—Mr. (Seward) wrote an open letter saying that he had to report some people and have them brought into camp. There was a justice camp that took just the—they thought the real dangerous elements—and that was mostly the head of the family. Fortunately, my dad was not taken whereas—most of the others—all the head of the family were taken into justice camps.
Did they all end up in Manzanar also?
No, some of them, if they were eligible and they had a hearing and they were eligible to come back, they went back to Manzanar. Also, we moved up to Hunt, Idaho, which is another relocation camp, some back there. Then they all came back.
So that would have been Minidoka?
Yes.
Did anyone come to help you pack up?
Yes people offered, but since we were the place where they were going to leave their property, we didn't do any packing, but the other people did. There was one lady with four little kids and her neighbors went over. I think stories like that were quite common on Bainbridge because the neighbors all helped.
Can you recall any other stories, or any other discussions that you had, about tension before you left? Tensions among whites that were encouraging you to leave, or other whites that were resistant, is there anything more that you can tell us about that?
No, and a day after Pearl Harbor they had an assembly at the Bainbridge High School. We had one high school that was fed by buses all over the Island. We had an assembly and the superintendent, the principal and some of the teachers all said not to get all worked up over this. They told the people not to blame the people—the Japanese there. If there were people that had tensions, they certainly didn't show it then. I thought we had all our friends that were still with us.
Did any propaganda go up on Bainbridge Island, against the Japanese?
They did after the war, or after the Japanese left.
Did you ever see any of it?
No we didn't, but we heard about it. That's when this publisher editorially said for the people to keep their heads on straight and don't get carried away and all that. Then that's when the community started having people that were glad to see us gone and those that were on our side.
