Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Sumiko M. Yamamoto Interview
Narrator: Sumiko M. Yamamoto
Interviewers: Tom Ikeda (primary); Barbara Takei (secondary)
Location: Sacramento, California
Date: December 8, 2009
Densho ID: denshovh-ysumiko-01-0013

<Begin Segment 13>

TI: Now, what would you do when you were at Poston with your extra time? Were there certain activities that you would do?

SY: Yes. There are, there were calligraphy classes, flower arrangements, and Japanese dancing if you want to learn, there were many activities like that.

TI: And tell me about how the food was at Poston.

SY: [Laughs] There's really nothing to talk about.

TI: Because it wasn't very good, or how would you describe...

SY: Well, I remember the Tule food, but I don't remember too much about Poston.

TI: Would your family eat together at the mess hall, or how did the family do meals?

SY: Well, my father had trouble with his stomach, so my mother would bring home some food and cook it again and make it so Father could eat it. And so he didn't go to the mess hall. The rest of us went, and my brothers and me, we would go with our friends, so my mother would go with her friends, too.

TI: But then she would bring back your father's...

SY: Yes.

TI: And then in your room, you would have a hot plate or something to re-cook your father's food?

SY: Oh, gee, yeah. No, I'm sorry, that was in Tule. I'm getting mixed up.

TI: No, that's okay.

SY: No, in Poston, my father was still healthy, able to go to the mess hall.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.