Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Ruby Inouye Interview
Narrator: Ruby Inouye
Interviewers: Alice Ito (primary), Dee Goto (secondary)
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: April 3 & 4, 2003
Densho ID: denshovh-iruby-01-0020

<Begin Segment 20>

AI: Do you recall arriving at Puyallup, what you saw there when you got there?

RI: Oh yeah. The fence, fence around, and lotta dust, the, the horse racing arena and the grandstand.

DG: Had you been there before, at all?

RI: Puyallup?

DG: For the fair or anything?

RI: I'm trying to figure out why, why would I ever go to Puyallup? I'm trying to figure out how I would know anything about Puyallup. 'Cause I don't know if they had a Puyallup Fair, but they did -- but see, our family didn't own a car. Well, not many families did. Our next door family had a car, but they were the only ones in our neighborhood with a car. And sometimes they'd do us a favor and give us a ride on a Sunday. But, you know, we had to walk or take a bus or streetcar everywhere we went. I don't remember ever going to Puyallup. So maybe that was the first time I went to Puyallup.

DG: So you saw the fence, and the grandstand and...

RI: What?

DG: So you saw the fence, and...

RI: Yeah.

DG: And then, so where did you go?

RI: Where did we go? Well, we were told to go to Area D, wherever Area D was. But I just remember getting settled in just one great big room. And there were, let's see, five, five kids and two, seven of us. So, I mean we, didn't we have to make our own beds and stuff our own mattress with hay and got a army cot and army blankets. Yeah, I remember that. Then after we were settled I think the first thing we wanted to do was we gotta find something to do. I think I went to the first aid station and started to help there. And my father, I don't know whether he became a cook in Puyallup, but he was in Minidoka. He was the -- he was the area, no, block, in the block, area where he was, I don't know if he cooked the meal, but at least he got it ready to dish out. And what did my mom do? I don't think my mother worked. Because I had a brother who was two years old.

AI: So, in Puyallup, you were all in this one room together.

RI: Oh yeah, one room.

AI: Do you remember what was going through your head when you were getting your family settled in there?

RI: Well, I'm sure that plenty went through my head that, "Wow, we're all in one room. This isn't like a home." And then next door we could, you know, so close you could hear what they were doing or saying. And then you opened the door and right away the whole block, whole aisle people are coming in and out. But that didn't last very long, from May to August. Time went fast because there was lots to be done, huh? To clean up and keep things clean and try to get comfortable and see who's around, from May to August, five, three months.

DG: Yeah, that's a lot of time if you have a whole day without any special plan.

RI: Yeah. Well, Japanese people are very, what, they're resourceful, so pretty soon, people are trying to make a home so they're making this or that and improving their room and trying to make curtains or something for the windows. I remember we did lot of ordering from Montgomery Ward mail order. And I specifically remember ordering lot of yarn and making sweaters, knitting sweaters for -- I remember I made a sweater for a Tsutakawa guy. He was about sixteen and he was at the first aid station, so I made him a sweater. I'm sure it was terrible, but then anyway -- [laughs] -- doing something.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.