<Begin Segment 11>

TI: So let's go to the assembly center. Earlier I misspoke and said Pinedale, but you were at Arboga?

CH: Arboga.

TI: So tell me what that was like? What were your first impressions?

CH: All the barracks were all lined up like that. And because our family was six of us, they gave us the end room was a large room, and there were six beds, single, you know, the army cots. There were six army cots in there, and there was a potbelly stove in the middle, pipe went up, smoke went up the chimney. And then everything was all bare, just walk in, and that's it. Then there was... the barracks is just two-by-fours, and then there's a wall, wood wall, but then there's cracks in them. And they have tarpaper on the outside, so that kept the dust out. But when the wind blew, that's what Tule Lake was known for, wind blowing, and sandy. Everything was covered with sand, with leaves. We brought some of our dishes and leave it out, because sand was covering it, so we had to cover it all the time with towels and tablecloths.

TI: So this was, so the room at the end of the barrack, that was...

CH: It was a big one, large.

TI: Yeah, so that was at Tule Lake or Arboga?

CH: This was at Arboga, yeah, Arboga. Because right next to us was a smaller room, and there was a couple from San Francisco that was there.

TI: Okay. And was there a lot of wind at Arboga also?

CH: Yeah, oh yeah, because it was just a dry lake, kind of like Moses Lake, just flat, nothing there. Rolling hills, and as I saw, there wasn't any trees on it.

TI: And how long were you at Arboga before you went to Tule Lake?

CH: They gave us a number, and we all stayed there... not very long, because they were talking about just trying to separate... well, there were some San Francisco people or some Placer County where we were. And then there were some... they were kind of a mixed up group in there. I don't know, I think they were trying to separate them. Because the people that moved there, all from that Sacramento area. And lot of people during the war left the West Coast area, especially around San Francisco area, they all went inland and went to live with their friends or relatives or something. And then they got caught into this second issue.

TI: That's interesting.

CH: They didn't live right in the city of Sacramento, but all those out by Walnut Creek and all of the outlying areas, they were all caught into that. So there were all kinds of people in Arboga.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2015 Densho. All Rights Reserved.