Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Hy Shishino Interview
Narrator: Hy Shishino
Interviewer: Sharon Yamato
Location: Cerritos, California
Date: January 31, 2012
Densho ID: denshovh-shy-01-0013

<Begin Segment 13>

SY: So you were, how long were you at Gila?

HS: Actually, from April 29th 'til... no, we got to Gila in October, so I was there from October 'til June 7th.

SY: So you were there about seven months.

HS: Seven months, yeah.

SY: Let's talk a little bit about getting from Santa Anita to Gila, so what was, you remember that experience?

HS: Yeah, they put us on trains and we went through Pasadena, but it was real late at night and so then you had to keep all the shades drawn. And never gave us water or anything, and I know midnight you could, it was going through Pasadena. I remember that. And so we kind of slept because there was nothing else to do. And then about seven o'clock in the morning we got to Casa Grande, I think, 'cause the drop off point from there, buses took us into camp. And the funny thing is when we got into camp and then we saw all of these kids rushing to help unload, and we were saying, "Oh look, this is the blackest people," says, "Jeez, they must be Indians." Turned out some of the guys that were unpacking, they were in Gila in that sun for just a few months and they turned really, I mean, three of the blackest kids, or the ones that I met and I became friends with. [Laughs] But first we said, "Oh, look at those Indians. They're gonna help us unload."

SY: That was, so it was, so it was very hot in, when you got there. When you arrived it was very, very hot.

HS: Yeah. It got to be as high as a hundred and twenty.

SY: Wow. I think --

HS: But you don't really realize the heat when you're, when you're there, 'cause I remember some parent... right behind us was the desert and we were in the very corner of the block, and so this one guy went and built a tennis court out there. He leveled the thing and then watered it down, and so I bought a tennis racket from Sears and I'd go out there and play with a friend. We each ordered tennis rackets. But you hit a ball real hard, trying to ace it, had to go out in the desert to catch it, but you had to watch out for the rattlesnakes. I never saw one out there. Well, I did see one little one, but you had to be careful. So I think you had a clothing allowance, I think one time clothing allowance, so I remember I bought a navy pea coat, and then I bought engineer boots that come up to here, so when I was walking, but I used to walk around camp with that all the time. I remember that's the only pair of engineer's boots I've ever worn.

SY: Must've been during the winter, though.

HS: Well, all through summer, well, I was there, what, October through June, yeah.

[Interruption]

SY: What happened on the train when you went from Santa Anita to Gila? Can you tell us what that experience was like?

HS: Well, I remember it was dusty and dirty, and of course I don't have allergies, so I was lucky. But when we were gettin' on, after we were all seated, anyway, there was an MP, I refer to him like a bulldog, but anyway, he had this baton, and I was standing near the entrance and for some reason he just slammed that thing down and said, "Get back," like that. So I thought, "Well, you SOB," I was thinkin' to myself. [Laughs] But you know, it just, I guess when you get a baton and a badge you feel like you're... but it looks like there was a little prejudice involved too, but he just, wham, and he says, "Get back, you."

SY: So was the, that sort of typical of the way the army treated you, or was it just a few people?

HS: That's the only experience that I could remember with an MP, because once you're in the camps... but we lived not too far from the fence, but I heard that when one grandfather was playing, throwing a tennis ball, when the little kid threw it and he came close to the fence, the guard shot and killed him. But I've never heard anybody else say anything about, or nobody's ever looked into the army records and identified the soldier that did the shooting. But if it'd been today's days, that man would've been court martialed and put in a stockade for the rest of his life, but nothing was ever, ever been mentioned about who he was and...

SY: How did you hear this story?

HS: Well, everybody around camp had mentioned that a sentry went and shot and killed one... you know, when something like that happens, boy, it goes around the camp pretty fast. In Santa Anita even, one time I remember they had a shakedown -- that was the Yellow Mess section, which is way over on the side away from us, but there was a bridge going into that section there -- but there's a riot that I heard went on over there, but pretty far away from where we were in the middle of the camp. But they claimed, they had a shakedown and so they kicked everybody out of the barracks, and they claimed that one MP had found cash and put it in his helmet. But when they got kicked out of the, their barracks, there was a small riot over there and the MPs had to come over there with their rifles and everything. And that's the only time I heard of a fairly big commotion there.

SY: And that was at Santa Anita.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.