<Begin Segment 20>

SN: When, you were saying something about the mess halls a little earlier, so let's just talk about one block. And one block has so many barracks, and there's so many apartments in each barrack. The layout of a typical block, what type of communal buildings were there, like, you talked about a mess hall, what else were there?

SH: They had in middle of the block, they had a building which, they had latrines there, men and women separated, then they had the showers separated. It was in the middle of the block. The block surrounded the mess hall, and the restrooms, latrines, was in the middle. We ate in shifts.

SN: Okay, let's start with the mess hall first, then. You stated earlier that there were I think maybe about 200 people, is that what you had told me?

SH: About 200 people. So there was... probably feed around fifty to sixty people. Well, maybe more than that because they usually did it in three shifts in the block that I lived. Three shifts in the morning, three at noon and three in the evening.

SN: And, what type of food did you typically eat?

SH: Oh, we had eggs, we had hotcakes, we had... it was good enough breakfast.

SN: And who actually worked in these mess halls?

SH: There would be a chief cook, so designated usually from experience. Because, there was a lot of Japanese restaurants, just like there was in Seattle. So everyone that owned a restaurant, they probably were asked. They didn't ask me, 'cause they knew I was a farmer, I guess. But, a lot of the farmers from Bellevue, we worked in the mess hall, I worked in a mess hall, in both camps. So whoever was a cook that had cooking experience, by having a restaurant or something like that, they got the job as chief cook.

SN: So the mess halls, then, were operated by internees.

SH: Yes.

SN: So, can you describe what it was like eating a typical meal with all those people? I'm assuming that you weren't used to this, coming from a small farming family.

SH: Well, you knew certain people, and so it didn't take very long to make a group of people, friends. You didn't, I didn't get to know all the people in my block. I didn't get to know 'em all. But certain people you meet, and some of them you knew, some of them you never knew, and maybe your next door neighbor in this, within the barrack go to eat together. They said, all the people in barracks number one, two, three, four, line up to go and eat. Then, when they come back, well then, the next few barracks and so on down.

SN: Now when you... now you also described one of the communal buildings, the lavatory, the washroom. Can you describe the interior of that? Can you describe the inside of the washroom?

SH: Inside the washroom, they had, I'm not sure they had sinks, maybe there was wooden troughs. They had running water, hot and cold. The latrines, so they were called, there were no partitions. There was just a row of seats with a hole in them or something.

SN: That must have been rather difficult to deal with.

SH: It was really hard for the ladies, for the women... extra hard for the ladies. Yeah.

SN: And the other communal building, I think you described one more, like was there a place to wash clothes?

SH: Yeah, they had a laundry room. Yeah.

SN: Now, was this per block, or was it for every two blocks?

SH: For, block, for that group in there.

SN: Can you describe the interior of the washroom? Can you describe the inside?

SH: I don't recall too much how the washroom was. But, you could use it any time. And sometimes there was line up, just to get a washtub. They did have hot and cold running water, at least in the one where I was.

SN: So if you were in your barrack, and you wanted to have -- it appears, your description of the barrack indicates that there was no plumbing in the barracks, that you didn't have running water.

SH: No.

SN: Describe that process, if you wanted something as simple as water to drink, or...

SH: You had go to the block, center of the block and get the water, bucket of water. There was no plumbing. No plumbing whatsoever. There wasn't even a sink in each barrack, there was just...

SN: So you had your cot? You're describing army cots?

SH: Just an army cot. They had no double beds, in other words. Everybody... you could have put the two cots together, but they were just army cots, standard, GI issue.

SN: Now, were the different blocks separated by any type of fencing?

SH: No fence, but they were spaced so far apart, not real far apart, just... there was a definite pattern. This whole block had so many barracks, another block had so many barracks.

SN: How far were the barracks spaced apart?

SH: I'd say about ten to fifteen feet apart. They weren't right close together. It was about 20 x 20, and probably another 20 feet apart between the next one.

SN: And do you recall how many blocks there were to Pinedale?

SH: I didn't hear the last.

SN: Do you remember how many blocks there were in Pinedale?

SH: No, I don't.

SN: And, you stayed in Pinedale for, how many months?

SH: May, June, July... I stayed there about ten months.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.