Oral History Videos

George Katagiri
Interview Length: 2:25

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT:
Now, I was fifteen at the time and very healthy and very active.  And of course having been a boy scout, loving the outdoors, I loved to improvise.  And so, this adjustment to the assembly center for me was kind of challenging and kind of intriguing.  I wasn't minding it very much, and I was adapting to it quite well.  And I played a lot of ball and but most of all just horsing around with friends.  Until one day, I saw this kind of a happy-go-lucky kid in there not really understanding what was going on.  But one hot day, it became so hot in the assembly center that the only way to cool off was to go outside.  And so I went out the north side of the building, and I just sat down on the ground with my back against the building in the shade.  And right along side of the building on the north side is a kind of a busy street.  And before I realize it, someone said, "hey George."  And I looked up.  Here was this car going by, and from the back window, it was my old friend Evan Sax.  Evan and I, you know, went through eight years of elementary school together.  And all I had time to say was, "Hi Evan," and he was gone.  But it was that at that moment that my eyes focused on the fence between us and the barbed wire that was on top.  And, all of a sudden, in an instant, this happy-go-lucky kid kind of sobered up and thought, wow, there is something amiss here.  Here, Evan my friend that I grew up with is riding in a car with his parents out there twenty feet away from me, and I'm on this side of the fence.  And I think for the first time, I realized the seriousness of the whole situation.