<Begin Segment 20>

AH: Okay, and then when you're talking about organizing this tray service, you're talking about just for your own block, aren't you?

JA: Yes, Area D.

AH: And how big was Area D, about how many people?

JA: It was the biggest.

AH: It was. And what does that mean, about 600 people?

JA: Oh no, no, no, no, more than that, thousands.

AH: Oh really? Out of the ten thousand that are there, this is a size...

JA: The biggest, biggest area. Area D was the biggest, it was A, B, C and D.

AH: Oh, so it was in quadrants there, the camp.

JA: No, Area D was the biggest and in the Puyallup Fairground. And Area A, B and C, they were separate and they were all wired in, I mean, fenced in, and they had their own thing.

AH: But that was still part of what they called the Puyallup Assembly Center.

JA: Yes, assembly center. It was A, B, C and D. And I was there in D.

AH: Was D about as big as all the other three combined?

JA: Just about, yes.

AH: Okay. And is this the place where most of the presence of the JACL and the labor group was, in D?

JA: Yes.

AH: Okay. So then you were taking on a big group here when you were doing this tray service, then?

JA: Right. If you haven't been to Puyallup, you know where the mess hall was or where the cooks were, the kitchen, and when you have to take the tray, you had to walk maybe a quarter mile by the time you go back and forth. So I had to have a group of girls enough to cover that whole area, pretty good size area.

AH: How did you have the authority to just unilaterally organize a tray service like that?

JA: Well, I just saw the need, that's all.

AH: So it was an informal thing?

JA: Yes, very informal, and it was not according to how they wanted to run the camp.

AH: So this was something you basically did with the blessings, after a while, of the head chef in the kitchen there.

JA: Yes, he thought that was a good idea. And then not only was it just for that, we, I was asked to take food out to the isolation ward and to the hospital, it expanded from that tray service.

AH: What were some memorable experiences, apart from these, during the three months or so, that two or three months that you were at Puyallup?

JA: Well, we had to do something, so we had softball team, then we had sumo, and what else? Oh, yeah, we danced in the mess hall. That's about the time when jitterbugging was coming, too, and I'd be there teaching people how to jitterbug. [Laughs]

AH: Did you have a job in Puyallup that you were compensated for?

JA: Uh, guess I was. I think it had something to do with the kitchen and maybe from that I was involved in the kitchen.

AH: And who was with you when you were at Puyallup? Who in your family was there?

JA: Now, meaning what?

AH: Which other members of your family were with you?

JA: Oh. Just my brother and myself. And there was a young man whose mother and father took off and left him in Seattle, so we kind of took him in and took in as one of our family.

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