Densho Digital Archive
Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community Collection
Title: Matsue Watanabe Interview
Narrator: Matsue Watanabe
Interviewer: Debra Grindeland
Location: Bainbridge Island, Washington
Date: October 7, 2006
Densho ID: denshovh-wmatsue-01-0007

MW: Well, we had to wait for the, the big army trucks to come, and they came to pick us up. And I don't recall whether there was another family on there or not. But, they, we have, you know, quite a number in our family. There were of course seven of us, because my dad was gone. And so they had to put us there, in there with suitcases. And, and I just remember going to the dock and at the time I didn't realize it was the dock across from the Winslow dock, because you just know you're going to the ferry boat. And so we went over there and of course then you have all the rest of the Japanese people there, and, and all their luggage. And so we just piled there with everybody else, and then waiting to go on the ferry. And, of course, I should say we were -- when the trucks came by, of course, it's all soldiers, and so they came by with their guns and they stand there at attention while we're doing that. And so that was another, I guess, scary moment for us because we're standing there with all the military around us as if that we had really done something bad, and so they were gonna take us away.

DG: And what emotions do you remember feeling personally as a young girl?

MW: Well, I didn't want to look at... I didn't want to look at anybody I knew there. Because I felt ashamed to be having to go away and then, of course, when the ferry dock went off and we landed in Seattle, we were marched over to the train, trains that were on the tracks right there. And I just recall seeing all those people hanging over the viaduct looking at us, and I felt like we were strange animals because they were all there just to see you leave. And of course, no place, nobody else had ever left for a camp. So, it was a, a very scary experience for us, not knowing when we would, if and when we would be back at all, and where we were going. We didn't know where we were going.

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