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MN: Now on the day you were to leave for camp, do you remember where your gathering place was?

BS: Yes. We went to Union Church over there on San Pedro street. I believe the address is 123 North San Pedro Street. But we had to be there by noon on May the 9th. So there we got on busses and then we had a police escort to Santa Anita. And we were fortunate, Santa Anita, because we lived on the parking lot of Santa Anita. I say fortunate because my grandmother lived in the horse stables. And as much as I loved my grandmother, I hated to go visit them because of the stench of the prior tenants, the horses.

MN: You mentioned your grandparents who ended up in the horse stalls. Where did they live before the war?

BS: Before the war they lived in San Diego, in a small community called Lemon Grove. And fortunately or unfortunately, we got together at Santa Anita racetrack after May the 9th.

MN: Now, before the war, were you able to visit them out there?

BS: Yes.

MN: What was that like? You're a city boy.

BS: And that was the country. They had an outhouse, and then they didn't have electricity in those days. They had kerosene lamps, and it was really spooky to go out and use the outhouse. But that's what we had to do, and then we visited our grandparents. But it was sort of fun, but yet mysterious, especially evening, dark, and you'd hear the crickets and you're in the countryside, so it's something different.

MN: Now, going back to Santa Anita, what was your first impression of Santa Anita?

BS: Well, it was just, to me it's just a huge, big city of black tarpaper barracks, except for the grandstand. And so the grandstand was really a treat, and we had school in the grandstand. But it was sort of distracting because we saw the young men and women making camouflage nets in one section, then fifty feet away, another class is there, and fifty feet that way another class is there. So just distracting. And then the horse racetrack, that was our playground. So that was our P.E. playground, so we played softball or football or baseball on that dirt. So many activities going on, it's hard to pay attention to the teacher.

MN: And who were your teachers?

BS: I assume they were just the Japanese incarcerated people there, because we had Japanese teachers at that time.

MN: Did you ever get lost at Santa Anita?

BS: Oh, yes. It was very embarrassing. I got lost, and I couldn't find the latrine. And I just had to, I just ended up wetting my pants. Very embarrassing, I was, what, eleven years old already, but I just couldn't find the latrine. I'll never forget that. By the way, in those days, at the camp, we used to carry our own toilet paper around, because lots of times they won't have toilet paper in the latrines. So they used to distribute the toilet papers to the barracks. So we had our own toilet papers. In fact, I either still have it or I gave it to the Heart Mountain Foundation. [Laughs]

MN: So if you had to go to the latrine at night, what happened?

BS: Oh, that was another interesting thing, is the latrine was a couple, two, three barracks away from our unit, and they had guard towers, and the guard towers had searchlights. So if they pick us up, they'll follow us, and then if we go into the latrine, they'll wait for us to get out of the latrine. Then when we get out, they follow us again. That's when we used to play games with the spotlights or the soldiers because we're trying to hide behind a barrack, and then get back to our unit without them following us with the searchlights. So that was one game they're playing with the MPs there.

MN: Now, you're living in the parking lot area, and you could see through the fence, and what was right across the street?

BS: Oh, yeah. Right across the street, I'm not sure if it was Huntington Drive or not, but a nice big theater marquee there. Oh, we wished we could sneak out and go see a movie or so. But we did have movie in the grandstand, but that was special one, and I believe it was all Deanna Durbin movies. So nice, it was sponsored by the Maryknoll church, so it's nice clean living movies. But we wanted to see some shoot 'em up cowboys or cops and robber one, but we didn't get to see those.

MN: Now, you also joined the Cub Scouts at Santa Anita. Can you share that experience?

BS: Oh, yes. Actually, I wanted to join the Boy Scouts, because you had to be twelve years old. And we had to go into camp, that was my first disappointment. I said, "Gee, I can't join the Boy Scouts, I'll be twelve years old in camp." But then when we went to Santa Anita, they had Cub Scouts. So I joined the Cub Scouts, and we had competition against each other. So I got to meet other boys other than our immediate area, so in fact, got to be lifelong friends. I met them in Santa Anita, then we ended up in Heart Mountain, then we ended up in Los Angeles together after the war.

MN: So when you say you had competitions, were these like sports competitions?

BS: Yes, just sports competitions, simple ones. So we found some real athletic boys, I never saw such outstanding athletes like that. I remember one of them was Joe Maruyama, I remember him. And then even after camp he was outstanding. He played for the varsity at L.A. Polytechnic High.

MN: Now do you remember which mess hall you ate at?

BS: Yes. The mess halls, I think we had about seven mess halls, and they were all color coded. So ours, we lived in District 7, so District 7 ate at the Yellow Mess Hall. So, like everything else, we always had to wait in line, eat there. Sometimes we tried to go to a different mess hall, but we had little badges, little buttons. So it has number 7 on it, so District 7 on a yellow background, so we could only eat there. But most of the people tried to eat at the grandstand. They had more, larger so-called cafeteria or eating place, whereas we just had a small mess hall to eat in. Whereas the people in the grandstand had a large area to eat, so we'd try to sneak in over there.

MN: What was the food like there?

BS: Food, I never was too particular about food, so as far as I was concerned it was okay.

MN: You never got diarrhea?

BS: I don't recall that, no.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.