<Begin Segment 13>

TI: But let's go back to, so after the grand jury, you were sentenced to two years, then you mentioned the work camp. Tell me about the work camp, what was that?

KY: Oh, work camp was just a regular work camp, that's all it was, barracks and no cells, no fences. As far as the fence was concerned, out on the road camp, they had big boulders there with white paint on it, and you had to stay within the white paint on the rock. That was the only guard we had there. And you know, there was no guards out there.

TI: So who were the prisoners at this work camp? Who else was there?

KY: Oh, mostly were draft resisters, Jehovah's Witnesses, and people connected with the Indians. Because during that time, we couldn't sell Indian, no blood, I mean, no wine. They're not allowed alcohol. And they were there. But we had one Indian fellow there was for draft, and I think he served eight years. Because they sent him a notice, he'd serve his time, get out, go home, they sent him another notice, he wouldn't go, and he was back in again. And he served about eight years there, just because he wouldn't go in the draft. He was quite a character. But when I went once to Topaz one year for a get-together, I met him there. But he looked like an old man by then. So I talked to him, and he says, "Oh, I had a great life."

TI: So you talked about the Jehovah's Witness, the draft resisters, and then the Indians. About how many men were in the work camp?

KY: I'd say there was about two hundred men.

TI: So it's a sizeable group, then.

KY: Yeah, oh, yeah. We worked on building a road through the Catalina Mountains in Tucson. And it was a road that was not very, it wasn't a very important road, it was a road that's going up in the mountains. And it's going to a resort, they made a nice resort area up there. We went up there to the resort area, I think the second trip I was up there, we went up to the resort area, and I talked to one of the fellows that owned a delicatessen store. He says, "Oh, you helped build the road?" I said, "Yeah." He says, "Oh, stay there, I want to come back with a camera," and he took our picture. He was so happy to have somebody, knew somebody that built the road. Because it was a beautiful resort, they had snow up there fifteen feet high one time, they said, it was really something.

TI: So what was it like... so before the road camp you were in Tanforan and Topaz, and then the county jail. How would you compare the work camp to those other experiences?

KY: Oh, road camp was fantastic. I have no complaints about the road camp. No guards to worry about, nothing to worry about. No bad weather, it was like a summer camp. To me, it was like a summer camp. And the food, no heart, no inner parts of the animals.

TI: So you're talking about the food that you got at Topaz.

KY: Topaz, yeah.

TI: A lot of organ meats like heart.

KY: Yeah, tongue and stuff like that. And when we went to the road camp, we got better food. It was not a real choice food, but you know, it was much better than camp days. And we had nice weather, we worked six days a week. You know, just like camp, six days a week. But the war ended, we went back to where I was working five days a week. And I said, "That's funny, working five days a week, and sit around Saturday and Sunday? I said, "Boy, this is really relaxing." And here the people in the summer camp, people in Tucson were roasting to death. Here I'm up in the mountain, nice and cool.

TI: Now during this period, did you ever communicate back to your family, letters about...

KY: Oh, yeah, we were allowed one letter a week. So my sister used to write to us, and we'd write back.

TI: By any chance, were any of those letters kept? Did the family or anyone keep these letters that you wrote?

KY: No. But anyway, while we were in road camp, the fellow that got five years, he wrote a letter saying he wanted to get out of this camp. He said he can walk out of here. The guard read it, that night, they picked him up and sent him to a walled institution.

TI: Oh, so they thought he was a risk.

KY: Yes, because he wrote that down, and it was written down. So they picked him up and put him in a road camp, I mean, to a walled institution. And he stayed at the walled institution 'til after the war ended. And when they got the pardon, they let him out of the walled institution, and that's how he got out of jail.

TI: I just want to make one comment before we take a break. It seems a little ironic to me that here were convicted felons getting much better treatment than the people at Topaz, and much better conditions.

KY: Oh, yeah. But it showed. The weather was beautiful up there, I had no complaints. People say that was crazy, but the thing is, to me, that was fantastic. I enjoyed that life, it was great. You can buy your cigarettes up there and everything if you want to smoke. And they had a place, we had woodcraft, we could do woodcraft work. So it was fantastic.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.