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TI: In your case, your family's case, why don't you describe the day that you went to Puyallup. What was that like?

SI: Well, Mother got us ready to, to leave, and she said that there's gonna be a bus that will come to pick us all up and take us down to Puyallup. So we all got ready to go. We might have had a few things to take with us, some suitcases and handbags, satchels and things like that, I don't how many there were, but with Mom and seven kids, you know, all going together in the bus with a lot of other people. I can't even remember where we boarded the bus, it might have been in front of the temple, where we boarded the bus.

TI: Now, do you recall anyone helping you? Because you're right, it was your mother and seven children. You were the oldest and you're only twelve, and she had a newborn. So that whole range of young children.

SI: I'm certain that some of her friends, members of the temple, assisted her during that particular period. In fact, all during that period in camp, too, her friends helped her.

TI: So why don't you describe your first impressions when you got to Puyallup. What was that like for you?

SI: Well, I could remember the barbed wire fence, and I could remember the guard towers, and rows and rows of barracks. That's the first impression I had, anyway. And the fact that we had to go through the guarded gates.

TI: And once you got in the gates, did you see very many people that you recognized?

SI: At first I really didn't recognize too many people. Actually, in our particular area, I knew very few people that were in the camp. We had one of the smaller assembly camps, "Camp Harmony" Area C, which is a parking lot outside the fairgrounds. No, I didn't really recognize or know too many people in there other than there was one schoolmate that I kind of remember, yeah, two or three schoolmates that I could remember.

TI: So describe, so you're in lot, or Area C, which is a parking lot. Describe your accommodations. What was that like?

SI: Well, it was, in the first row of barracks, the room is about roughly, oh, twenty-by-twenty. And the separation between the rooms was maybe around eight or nine feet high with an opening on the top. The walls were made out of clapboard and two-by-four studs. There was one window in the back as I could remember, and one door in the front. And essentially that was it.

TI: Like bedding, what was the bedding like for the seven children and your mother?

SI: I believe they had cots for each one of the kids. I'm not quite sure if it was a canvas or a steel cot. It might have been a canvas cot. Then as far as the bathrooms, it was a communal bathroom. You had to go out to go. [Laughs] And as far as the meals, you have to go to a communal mess hall. They'll ring the triangle or someone would shout that breakfast is ready, line up. That happened, of course, for all three meals. You have a long line of people going into the mess halls. I can't remember if there was a canteen where you could buy things there at that time. I can't remember for sure if there was one. But then, of course, there were the communal bathrooms and latrines. Of course, ladies' and gentlemen's were kept separate. But the showers, being communal, you'd all get in together and there'd be a row of showerheads where the water would come out. So that was generally how things were laid out.

TI: And so what did you do to, during the day to sort of, sort of get by each day? What would you do?

SI: During the time that was spent in Area C in "Camp Harmony," I can't remember for sure if we had school or classes. I know I went out and got to make some friends and played with them. They organized some sports where you could play maybe softball. But there really wasn't much of a field to play on. Area C was a very small camp of the four that was in "Camp Harmony." They made a sumo pit where you could have sumo wrestling. But other than that, I don't remember doing much, maybe playing mumblepeg, marbles. Some of the older boys in the next row of barracks even made a little golf course, miniature putting course. That I remember. They had some craft groups that made different types of art like carvings. I remember one gentleman that carved an eagle out of the bark that came off of kindling, and that was fantastic, really.

TI: How about things like religious ceremonies? Did they, on Sundays, have services?

SI: I think that we did have some services. Since Reverend Terao happened to be in our particular camp, Area C, we did have Sunday service. And we would chant sutras and sing some gathas in one of the mess halls.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.