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Title: Tosh Yasutake Interview
Narrator: Tosh Yasutake
Interviewers: Alice Ito (primary), Tom Ikeda (secondary)
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: November 14, 2002
Densho ID: denshovh-ytosh-01-0004

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AI: Well, then as you had described earlier, then events continued, your father was, continued to be detained and you, your brother and sister had to help your mother take care of your affairs and get ready for the so-called "evacuation" out of Seattle. You were then eventually told to get ready to go to the assembly center at Puyallup and you, the children, went with your mother. Your father was being, continued to be detained separately. And when you got to Puyallup then maybe you'd like to say just a little bit about what you found there and...

TY: Well, I remember... well, Puyallup was divided into four different sections, section A, B, C and D. A, B, C, as I remember, was constructed right -- the parking area of the Puyallup Fairground, Puyallup Fairground and the main fairground was Area D and that's where the administration office was and the hospital. And we were assigned to, originally assigned to Area C. And as I remember, now when we got there it was -- it had rained or something and it was very muddy. And we got into the area, I noticed that there was barbed wire around each section and guards. And seeing the soldiers there and guarding the compound was kinda, sort of shocked me, actually. And once we got into the gate and were going to the assigned barracks -- another thing that really shocked me was how barren it was. Just four walls and there were bunks and I think they were wired, metal bunk beds. And we were giving mattress cover and told where to go to get some hay to put in the mattress cover for, as a, to use as a mattress. It was kinda like going to a camp. Looking back, it was like going to an army camp, really.

AI: What was it that was so shocking to you?

TY: Pardon?

AI: What was it that was so shocking to you?

TY: Well, to be honest, I don't know what I was expecting. But being, going to -- one thing that shocked me was the barbed wire, barbed wire fence and the army guard with rifles. So at that time I realized that I think we're going to be prisoners. The immediate thought that came to you, I think, was that I was going to be a prisoner of war. And that is essentially what it was. And there were no -- there was, I think when we got there they just had outhouses. And they had a community mess hall and, well, it was just like being in prison. It -- the image of what we used to see in movies, what prison life was like. Communal mess halls, communal bathrooms, and the meals were very -- well, as I mentioned before, I think we had a lot of Vienna sausages. To this day I don't like Vienna sausage. And Spam -- I don't like Spam either. [Laughs]

TI: Tosh, I'm curious; as a college student, once things settled down, were there more expectations or responsibilities for those who were in college, or was there any distinction? Because I imagine with a lot of the community leaders leaving or being picked up by the FBI, so they weren't in camp, and so I was curious, as a college student, did, were there any additional responsibilities put on you by anyone?

TY: Well, the one thing I do recall is that they asked the older kids to volunteer for things. They needed volunteers for everything from mess hall to administrative things and hospitals. So at that time I volunteered for the hospital, to work there in any capacity that they were willing to let me work and so I started working in the hospital immediately after I, shortly after I got there as a male attendant, and a lot of, there must have been oh, about fifty volunteers. We volunteered to do that. Maybe there was more. I can't remember the exact number. But, so once I volunteered to work in the hospital, why they, because of that they moved our family to Area D, and we, and we were put in a barrack that was a little bit better than the one that we had. [Laughs]

TI: And that was based on you volunteering for the medical?

TY: Yeah, I guess so. Because they -- I can't remember the exact detail but we were transferred over to Area D.

TI: And who would decide that? Would it be sort of... was there a camp administration that would sort of figure that out in terms of if a person volunteered they would get moved to perhaps a slightly better quarters or was that an internal type of decision? How was that all figured out, 'cause I've never heard this before. This is interesting.

TY: Well, frankly I don't remember. I really don't know. I really don't know who decided that. I assume that they thought it would be convenient, more convenient for -- less paperwork and so forth to have transfer over to the area where the people wouldn't have to go through the gates. You know, if you're working, if you're in the other areas, if you worked in Area D every morning you don't have to go from Area C to Area D or wherever and I imagine it would take a little more work for everyone else, so they decided to transfer everybody. So all the, the area that we -- the barracks that we moved into, about three barracks, I think, and they're all hospital personnel. Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, nurses' aides, male attendants, and what have you. And it was just, next to the hospital was very convenient. So we didn't have to go walk far to get to work, go to work.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2002 Densho. All Rights Reserved.