<Begin Segment 16>

TI: So you went to Pinedale, which is Fresno. So it is, it's a pretty hot area.

TO: It was hot.

TI: So describe what, besides the heat, what else about Pinedale can you remember?

TO: I remember that the local, the train. I guess there was, they tried to build things so fast that the sewage system wasn't working, and oh, it was really, really smelling around the latrine. [Laughs] I remember in the mess halls, the food was such, and I guess the refrigeration system wasn't very good because everybody had the runs and the food was horrible. I remember one of my oldest brothers, brother-in-law, he was, had to go... there was coal, either coal or wood stoves at the, in the kitchens, and his job was to go around early in the morning to start the fires in those stoves so when the cooks got there, they'd have... and it was hotter than dickens. I distinctly remember that one thing, the barracks, the temporary barracks, the floors were all asphalt. They weren't concrete, they were asphalt. And those army cots, had those steel-leg army cots. Those cots would get so hot that it would sink into the asphalt. I distinctly remember that.

TI: So even though the cots...

TO: They were the metal, we were on the metal cots, you know.

TI: Metal cots, but they were inside, though.

TO: Oh, yeah.

TI: So it would be so hot inside...

TO: Oh, yeah, yeah.

TI: ...the barracks that it would just...

TO: Just slowly sink, and of course the weight. And I don't know how good that, the quality of the asphalt was, but they would sink in, definitely. I recall, outside, of course, there wasn't anything for anybody to do, there wasn't any playground, it was a very confined area. And the fence around there, of course, the guards and everything, but what really got our attention was the orange trees that was around there. You know, the orange was still on the trees, and that was really something for us to see because we never saw orange trees up here in this part of the country. And that was the only thing that I kind of distinctly remember.

TI: So were the orange trees inside the camp compound?

TO: No, no, they were outside the fence.

TI: So you could just watch them, look at it? [Laughs]

TO: That's right, yeah. No, they were across the road or something. I don't remember where they were, but they were right, at Pinedale, right among a bunch of orange orchards.

TI: And so what would you do to stay cool? How would you stay cool in such hot temperature?

TO: Us guys, we'd take, you know, our clothes. But women, that was another issue. But yeah, there was fans, you try to fan yourself. There was no electric fans or anything, so I don't know, we just suffered through it. I was young yet, so I guess I didn't suffer as much as some of the others. But yeah, I distinctly remember around the latrines, it was a horrible mess.

TI: And so what would you do to pass the time?

TO: That's another, I think we just sat around and talked. Because for some reason, I think that we were there long enough for the Issei to put up a sumo rink where the guys could do sumo. And so I remember that we'd go watch the guys that knew how to do sumo, to do that sumo wrestling. But the place certainly wasn't big enough for any baseball diamonds or anything like that. I don't really recall us doing anything but just hanging out and just talking and sitting around. Because there was no school or anything formal at that time.

TI: And who would you hang out with? Are these people that you knew from Seattle, or who would you talk with?

TO: Well, I never hung out with any Seattle people. Well, some of the kids I went to junior high school with, but they weren't... so whoever happened to be our neighbor, I don't distinctly remember anyone that I was real close to other than my relatives that were all there at the same time. Yeah, I don't remember being real close to any, and that's kind of interesting now that you ask, because...

TI: How about your parents? What did they do during this time?

TO: I really don't recall them doing anything different than what we were... just sit around and talking and trying to keep cool. Of course, Mother, she was, she had the most, she had to wash our clothes and those type of things. But man, I don't recall them doing anything other than just sitting around and talking. Of course, with some of them, it was kind of a relief, I suppose, that they didn't have to do those daily chores and worry about financials and all that. But that was just one side of it. The other side was altogether different picture.

TI: Do you recall how long you were at the Pinedale Assembly Center?

TO: I really don't know. I should look all that stuff up, but all I know is it was hotter than the dickens. And I think by the time we left, it was it must have been getting close to fall. I think we were down there, went down there in June, and so I think it was sometime during the winter we went to Tule Lake. I remember that was a long train ride to Tule Lake.

TI: So you were in Pinedale during the height of the summer.

TO: Oh, yes.

TI: Do you, I mean, how hot would it get in Fresno?

TO: I don't know. I had heard a hundred degrees is not unusual at all in that part of the country. But like I was young, you know. Today it might hit me altogether differently.

TI: [Laughs] Probably.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.