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TI: And we'll come back after the war, back to the family, but let's go to Poston. And so now you're at Poston, so tell me what you thought of Poston.

SA: Well, camp was interesting because we were all in the same boat together. And when you're nine years old, ten years old, you're pretty nimble. And as long as you have a group of friends that you've associated with, and the parents were very protective, so all the parents took care of us very well in camp. And camp was like a community, and the Japanese were very enterprising, so they basically quickly built a city with stores, with police departments, with churches, with music, movies, and sports. So the whole infrastructure was set up just like a city. And so being nine years old, ten years old, you sort of enjoyed the life there. Now, my parents suffered a lot. In fact, all the parents, because, I mean, we were thrown into barracks, one-room barracks, so every family got one room with no partitions, so they had to build partitions and everything. Barracks were basically single layer board with air gaps and tarpaper. So everybody had to fix this thing up and make it livable. And then you had a central cafeteria and a central latrine just like an army camp.

TI: Well, and you're coming from kind of the Bay Area going to Arizona, and in summer the heat was...

SA: Oh, yeah, it was hot. Very hot.

TI: In terms of the family life, I mean, so it was your parents, your sister, brother and you?

SA: Uh-huh, yes.

TI: So five of you. Talk about the family dynamics. Did you guys eat together in the mess halls?

SA: Yeah, there was a mess hall, just like any army camp would have a mess hall.

TI: But when it was like for dinnertime, for instance, did the family go together to the mess hall and eat together?

SA: You could, or you could eat with friends. There was no restriction of that type.

TI: So what did your family, was it pretty much, did it stay like a nuclear family?

SA: Yes.

TI: And who did that? Was it your father or mother that was important for the family to eat together?

SA: I think both of them did it together.

TI: Because you hear a lot of stories that oftentimes, probably especially like for your brother or sister, they were old enough to eat with friends, and oftentimes you would see that breakup of the family.

SA: But there was an interesting... one thing I remember very well is that we had a chef, his name was Pakkai because he had a Chinese restaurant before he went into camp. And he would feed, make sure that the drivers that brought the food were well-fed. He made it a point to serve them the best meal that he can prepare. So anytime he wanted something special, and he wanted the best product, they would always bring everything to him. He would fix a nice meal and then they would go.

TI: Oh, okay. So that was probably smart. By feeding them, they would want to give him the better food because that's what they're going to eat.

SA: That's right. So we always had good food in our whole block.

TI: So did the word get around? Because I also heard the story that some people, when they found out where the good chef was, they would try to kind of go over to a different block?

SA: No, you can't.

TI: You had to stay down?

SA: [Laughs] If they did, I didn't know about it.

TI: Earlier you said something that was interesting, you said when you first talked about the camp, how you were all in the same boat.

SA: Yes.

TI: And I'm thinking that before the war, although there wasn't really... this was America and it wasn't necessarily a class system, but before the war there were some families that had more money than others. And talk about that. Was it kind of like an evening or a leveling effect?

SA: Yeah, because when you're in camp, everybody gets paid the same, which was hardly anything. I think it was sixteen dollars a month. And you lived in the same, every room, every barrack, every room was the same. So it was an equalizer. And so as a child, you didn't, everybody was alike.

TI: So was that a positive thing?

SA: For us. I think, in fact, I think it was for the whole population. It was a good thing because you have to cooperate and do things together to have a better life.

TI: So, Sam, I'm going to put you on the spot. You're a business guy. What you just described sounded like socialism. I mean, it's kind of like everyone is sort of even...

SA: Well, no, but you have to produce your own food. See, we basically, the Japanese farmed, produced their own food, grow animals.

TI: Yeah, but it was all as a collective, right? Everyone kind of worked, did their own thing, and everyone kind of got the same thing.

SA: Well, that's true, that is true. That is true. [Laughs] Yeah, in a way it was a socialized system.

TI: Yeah, it's just interesting how that worked during that time period.

SA: Well, I think it worked because it's Japanese Americans.

TI: Because people worked hard.

SA: And not only that, they were very... the Japanese Americans all wanted to work together and make this thing the best possible place to live.

TI: Well, did you see some people just sort of not do it? Because they got the same food, right? And they just said, "I'm not going to do anything."

SA: No, I didn't see that. I didn't see that. And this is where I think there was a... I think the Japanese Americans all were in the same boat, and they all, some of 'em felt more prejudice than others. There were a lot of people that supported the United States, there were some that were very much against the United States. So you had those factions. But at the end, everybody banded together. So it was a very homogenous society and a very homogenous infrastructure.

TI: That's interesting.

SA: And I don't even remember seeing a crime in camp, where somebody killed somebody or somebody stabbed somebody, I didn't see any of that at all.

TI: Now for you, how did your life change? Because before the war, you said in Saratoga, there really weren't that many people around.

SA: Yeah, and I was an only child, I was protected.

TI: And now you're around dozens and dozens of kids your age.

SA: Well, I think camp life was very good for me because it helped me grow up in a society where you had to meet new people, develop friends, and get along with friends.

TI: And it didn't matter what you had or something because...

SA: Doesn't matter, yeah. That's why I say we were all equal. And whatever you had you shared, and you worked together, played together.

TI: Interesting. I'm going to ask you later in terms of how any of this carried over to your work life, but let's keep moving on.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.