Densho Digital Archive - Takashi Hoshizaki Interview (denshovh-htakashi

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TI: Now, when you, when you first got there, were there a lot of people already at Heart Mountain?

TH: No. We, we were, again, probably one of the first to go in. I don't know whether we were the first, but we were apparently one of the very early ones, 'cause it was mid-August or so, or maybe when we went. Can't remember the exact date.

TI: Okay, so you were, so the mess hall team stayed pretty intact and so they were put to work right away?

TH: Yeah. Yeah, and so it was kind of a relief because we, again, we had about the same number, but in the way they divided the blocks up there were about, I think maximum of two hundred eighty people that you fed.

TI: And, and for your family, so there were six kids and your parents? Describe your, your living quarters.

TH: We had enough members in the family so that we were then (...) assigned two rooms. And so that made it a little better. There were four of us in each one of the rooms. And they talk about one coal burning stove or a heater in each room and then one bare light bulb hanging down on a cord, so that was it. And the, again, the wood was, was of very poor quality so as they dried there were cracks and knotholes would fall out. And the apartments, or the barracks weren't finished, so we looked at two by fours and later on, I think, I think it was that first winter, they came through, they finished off the inside with what they call celotex board, which then provided some insulation and some soundproofing and put the ceilings in and so it became a lot better by, I think within the first winter things were finished off. But still when the dust blew, the construction was such that the dust would be blowing through the windows and through the doors into the vestibules.

TI: So I'm curious, with the, so you have two rooms. You had four sisters, one brother, so there were two boys, four girls, so how did you guys figure out who slept where? Which four slept with...

TH: I don't remember. Yeah, I don't remember. And I think the problem there is, I don't remember is because I was out of there before the family was awake and then I would be coming back after dinner, but I remember in the wintertime (...) I would throw a chunk of coal in the burner and then shake the ashes off so it would start heating up the rooms. I remember doing that. And so, yeah, so anyway, I don't remember how it was split up.

TI: Your parents, what, what did they do with their time at Heart Mountain?

TH: My dad eventually went to work at the poultry yard. Chickens, raising chickens. And that's about all I can really say. Meanwhile, you know that (...) by 1944 (...) the draft thing came up and I was out of there. They, the FBI or marshals picked me up and...