Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collectiom
Title: Toshi Nagamori Ito Interview
Narrator: Toshi Nagamori Ito
Interviewer: Martha Nakagawa
Location: Laguna Woods, California
Date: November 9, 2010
Densho ID: denshovh-itoshi-01-0014

<Begin Segment 14>

MN: Now, when you went to this point of departure in Little Tokyo and you got on this bus, did they tell you where they were gonna take you?

TI: No, we had no idea where they were gonna take us.

MN: So how did you feel at that point?

TI: Well, it was kind of an adventure, you know, 'cause I'm only seventeen, and what do I know? [Laughs] And when we got there, I was so glad that we were one of the later ones to get there, so we were able to live in a barrack room instead of a stable.

MN: And those were all in the parking lot area?

TI: Uh-huh, in the parking lot area. And they were brand-spanking new, and they used green lumber to build them, so while we were there, the boards all shrank and even the boards in the floor shrank, and we could see below the floor and we could see our neighbors through the cracks. So finally my father tacked up a sheet on the side that the other family stayed.

MN: Now, you were also able to participate in graduation ceremonies because you couldn't graduate with your own high school class. Tell me about that.

TI: I was so fortunate to be able to take my textbooks in and finish my courses through correspondence with my teacher. And Verline Kersey, superintendent of the L.A. Unified School District, brought our diplomas to us. And Motomu Nagasako was also in Santa Anita, and he and I both got our diplomas at that time, in June.

MN: Now, how many students participated in this ceremony?

TI: I don't know, but there were quite a few. And I don't hear about that at all. It seems like I'm the only one that says, "I got my diploma and I had a graduation ceremony even, in Santa Anita racetrack in the grandstand." And Motomu's gone, and one of, my other friend that was in my same homeroom, she's gone. And I've never met anyone that said that happened to them. But I sure was fortunate.

MN: Now, can you describe what the bathroom situation was like at Santa Anita?

TI: Yes. Our bathrooms at least had walls on each side, but no doors. So we had some privacy. But I would always go down to the last one because I didn't want people to see me, so I would always go down to the last... what do you call it? Compartment. And on the men's side, I understand there were no walls in there at all, so they just sat on the commode with everybody else.

MN: Now, there was no soap dish, so what did you guys do?

TI: Well, that was when we were showering. So we showered at first in the shower, shower house where the horses were showered. And so there was a wall in the middle to separate the men's side from the women's side, and absolutely no partitions in the shower room. So all of us had to go there and undress, and there all these naked women showering together. [Laughs] And it was quite an experience for me (...). It didn't faze my mother at all, who was used to public bathing in Japan. [Laughs] (...) She just chided me all the time, "Don't be so shy. You have to take a shower, so take a shower." [Laughs] But anyway, it was an experience, yes. But finally, towards the end, we had showers with walls on each side, but no doors again.

MN: So how did you do your laundry?

TI: Well, they had a long trough at Santa Anita, and spigots, and this was all outside. And they had hot and cold running water, but there was nothing to catch the water to do your wash. So my father ordered a galvanized tub from Sears Roebuck, and we would put our dirty wash in there. And he also ordered a Red Flyer wagon, and we would put the washboard and the tub on this little wagon and our clothes, and take it down to the washing shed. And we would do our wash on the scrub board, and my father came down with us and he wrung out the towels and the sheets for us. [Laughs] And my mother and I did the rinsing and the washing, yes. And lots of people couldn't afford to buy a galvanized tub, so our galvanized tub and washboard was borrowed quite often.

MN: Now, some of the Nisei men I've interviewed would tell me they used to sneak a peek into the women's restroom, shower?

TI: Yes, yes.

MN: Have you ever caught any of the boys doing this?

TI: No, I wasn't aware of that. George Yoshinaga writes about that. [Laughs]

MN: And you never peeked in, did you ever peek into the boy's bathroom?

TI: Absolutely not. [Laughs] I could hardly wait to get out of there. Boy, I just rushed in there and took my shower and rushed out. Oh, dear.

MN: Now, which mess hall were you assigned to?

TI: I was assigned to the Yellow Mess.

MN: What do you remember about eating at the mess hall?

TI: Well, one time they gave us pork and beans for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And the second day they gave us a breakfast of pork and beans again, for lunch and dinner. So the third day, we all got together and decided that we would accept our dish of pork and beans, and we'd put it upside down on the table and walk out. So that's what we all did. And then the powers that be called it a riot, that we were rioting. But it was a good thing we did that, because then our menu really changed and much better, we got what we should have been getting.

MN: Now, I hear stories about people getting diarrhea also?

TI: Yes. We had a dish of, we had some fish one day, and everybody in our mess hall got diarrhea. And so the latrine was being used quite often, and finally the cesspool overflowed. It was terrible.

MN: Now, I've met former camp, Nisei, people, who don't eat certain foods because of camp. One of them, one lady I know doesn't eat pork and beans or apple butter. Have you had those kind of lingering issues?

TI: Yes, I don't like apple butter either. And also in Heart Mountain, they gave us a lot of rutabagas. I don't eat rutabagas. [Laughs]

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.