Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Betty Morita Shibayama Interview
Narrator: Betty Morita Shibayama
Interviewer: Alice Ito
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: October 27, 2003
Densho ID: denshovh-sbetty-01-0017

<Begin Segment 17>

AI: What was it like when you got there? What happened then?

BS: It was hot, hot. I don't remember exactly getting off of the train and if we went on a truck, on trucks to the camp. But all I remember it was so hot and then the, of course, the older siblings had to prepare the mattresses. I guess you had to stuff it with straw or whatever. And there were like army cots. And it was concrete, bare concrete floor. And it was so hot in there, and I remember my grandfather would get water, I don't know with a hose or with a bucket and he would just throw it on the floor to cool it down. And I remember the, I don't think they were really prepared because the mess halls, we would have to eat in shifts. But you know, out in Fresno, it's so hot that we'd have to stand in line for how long, especially lunchtime. And you'd see these, Issei ladies standing in line and fainting because you had to stand out, there's no shade to protect them. And you'd see these ladies fainting from the heat. And, well, I remember I was shocked when I saw the bath, well, the bathroom. And it, 'cause it was... well, in the country we had outhouses, and so you'd have like two holes and that. But they had, this was like, you go there and you look and it's like a piece of board with, I don't know how many holes on each side. And so you're back-to-back but there's no doors, nothing to separate. So if you sit on one side you're back-to-back with someone else but there's no doors or any partitions or anything so you're sitting... so it was makeshift. And I'm sure, like a kid it doesn't matter, but you know, the older, my older sisters, I'm sure it was very embarrassing for them. Then we had to take, the showers, I don't remember Pinedale, but there were showers, I think, and it was all open and that. And we weren't used to taking showers because we had ofuro in Oregon. My dad had made the hot tub, I guess you would call it, and that, so that was something different.

AI: And were all of you all living together in the same room at Pinedale? What was that, what did it --

BS: I think we had two, we probably had two rooms, but there were how many of us, all in that picture, including my grandfather. And, see, so it was, we must've been there for about three months, I'm just guessing, about three months. And then, course they'd give us, vaccinate us with a typhoid shot. Oh, and people would get so sick from that, you react to it and they'd get so sick and with the heat. And I remember that, I don't know if it was a series of shots or what, but I remember when we were being transferred from Minidoka to Tule Lake that I had gotten a shot --

AI: From Pinedale to Tule Lake?

BS: Yes. I was, is that what I said? Or did, I don't know if I said the right order. But I was so sick that I don't know if we were delayed going, or what, but I knew I was really sick. And then I was shocked, I think it was between Pinedale and Tule Lake where, you know, coming from Hood River we had the dining, dining car with the white, I guess white linen and that. But this was like a boxcar. And then they had these long, like what, a picnic tables, long ones like that, and so hot. And we had to eat in there. I don't think I, I think I went there once and I got so sick that I couldn't go, I couldn't.

AI: It sounds miserable.

BS: Oh yeah, that, I was shocked when I saw that, and it was so hot.

AI: Well, the time that you were in Pinedale, what, what were you doing all day long? Because it was...

BS: Summer.

AI: ...summertime and you didn't have any school in Pinedale, did you?

BS: No, no we didn't. So we just found our friends and just hung out with them. I don't know what we did. We must've played hopscotch or something like that. I don't remember.

AI: Did, do you remember anyone talking to you about what was happening to you or what this was about or anything, explaining anything to you?

BS: No, no.

AI: So for you, as a young kid it was just kind of a mystery, of you were just going where you were told to go.

BS: Uh-huh, uh-huh. We just had to obey the authorities.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.