<Begin Segment 16>

SY: So you remember when you, do you remember the train ride to Gila and getting there?

YM: Yes. It was a very old, old train, and I guess it took us overnight 'cause I think we slept sitting, and by the time we woke up our mouth was so gritty and you couldn't put a comb through your head 'cause it was just, I guess it wasn't airtight or whatever it was and going through a desert or something. It was the most uncomfortable feeling 'cause you think you chewed sand or something. It was awful.

SY: And did they give you any indication of where they were taking you?

YM: I don't remember. They must've told us where we were going. I don't know.

SY: And you were all, I mean, you had lots of people that you knew that were going to Gila with you, so you all stayed together?

YM: Yes.

SY: With Father John.

YM: Right. So most of the people on our block were Uptown people. We were on the end of the camp, last row in camp.

SY: There were two camps at Gila.

YM: Yes, there were. Canal was the, we were called Butte -- that's the second camp -- and the first camp was Canal, and they were, I think they opened earlier than Butte. They filled up Canal first. And then there were three barracks, Twenty-Eight, Twenty-Nine and Thirty, that was overflow of the Canal, so they were Fresno people. And we were in Block 31, the very end of the whole camp there, so it was just empty, just sageland back of us.

SY: I see. And all the people in this little area were Uptown people, then?

YM: About, a certain section. Just, I don't know how many barracks, but I think the Uptown people were close, adjacent to, the barracks were all together. But there were lots of other people from other places, but it was so big.

SY: Sprinkled in. Was that your first impression? When you got off the train, where did you end up when you first arrived?

YM: Let's see, what did we do? How did... I just, I don't really remember how, we must've lined up somewhere to get our barracks. [Laughs] I don't remember.

SY: Yeah, that's, because it, you might've taken a bus maybe. I don't know.

YM: I don't, yeah, from the train. We couldn't have been, it wouldn't have gone to the camp. I'm sure we took, yeah, I'm sure we took a bus or something. I don't really remember that.

SY: Do you remember when it was, what season? Was it hot when you arrived?

YM: It was October, but it was not cool. But there were hotter days than the day we got there. Got pretty hot.

SY: And when you arrived there, what was, once you got settled... did Father John -- now, in the assembly center was there a church, or was there a service that you all went to?

YM: In assembly center I don't remember, but in Gila he had a church. He had a barrack that was a church, about three, four barracks from where we lived, and so I guess he had services there. I don't remember going every Sunday or anything like that. But he was close by.

SY: So you sort of weren't real regular at the church at that time.

YM: Yeah, I didn't, I didn't go regular. We went regular all through those years, and then when we were in assembly center they had a huge one, big Christian service. Maybe take, they took turns or something. I don't remember too much.

SY: But they were Japanese ministers that were in charge.

YM: Right.

SY: And then in the, at Gila there were a lot of different little church...

YM: Probably. I'm not sure. I'm sure there were Buddhist churches and other churches. I'm sure there's more than one Christian church. I'm not sure.

SY: But Father John was able to keep his group going.

YM: Yes.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.