<Begin Segment 11>
AI: Well, now you mentioned that your living area was built on a pigpen.
TI: Yes.
AI: And that's because the assembly center was actually on grounds of the...
TI: Livestock exposition grounds. So they also had pigpens, cattle pens. And even when they covered it with wood, it smelled. And it was people that got horse stalls who had the worst conditions because the flies were so thick there and smelly. And they whitewashed the sideboards, but it was still bad.
AI: So you were literally in these animal stall areas or pen areas...
TI: Yeah.
AI: ...and you had guards guarding you. No wonder you had a "queer feeling," as you said in your diary.
TI: Yeah. And then one time I was outside, and a lot of the kitchen help had white (clothing) -- cooks had white shirt and pants, right by the fence. And it seemed to me, one of the workers leaned against the fence. And then he was shot, and I saw blood just squirting out like that. But they never reported that. I've never seen any report on that. But that's the only time we saw something where you have a trigger-happy soldier getting too serious about their job... but it was never reported in the camp paper or any kind of record.
AI: Do you recall having any conversation with anybody about that incident?
TI: No. No. It's just that, seeing that, especially with the white outfit on and blood squirting. And they said, "Well, stay away from the -- " well, they said, "You should stay away from the fence." I knew those soldiers were scared. That incident stayed me with me till much later. There were other incidents where (we) were picketing at Sea-Tac Airport and having the police from the county area, small towns trying to deal with us protesters. And I could just see the scare, faces, so I didn't push my luck with them, the same feeling was there. But I never, 'course, talked to any soldiers in the camp.
AI: That must have been a really scary incident.
TI: Yeah. Yeah, it was. But it was just one of many in the conditions that occurred, and we learned how to adapt to and certainly not complain about it. So that, it's amazing how that training from our parents and schoolteachers really taught us how we should behave.
AI: You mentioned the camp newspaper. So even in the assembly center, you had a newspaper or newsletter that was coming out?
TI: Oh, yes. Yes. I kept a lot of those papers -- [laughs] -- 'cause it was just part of my rat trap, and thinking it would be interesting later, perhaps, if I kept such information. And our (Portland) camp newspaper, called Evacuzette, and, well done. The artwork, time people put into it.
AI: But it sounds like the information that was allowed into the newspaper was limited, since this shooting incident, for example...
TI: Yeah.
AI: ...wasn't reported.
TI: Yeah. And I understood that the reporters were, the Nisei reporters, were sort of censored on stuff they could print, so that could have been part of that.
<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.