<Begin Segment 15>

TI: Yeah, so when you go to Poston, do you recall any first impressions when you finally get there?

FD: Well, yeah, I remember dust and heat and standing around waiting to find out what we're supposed to do, where we were supposed to go. And then I noticed that most of the Issei men and Issei ladies all seemed to be dressed in their good clothes. And the men were... well, as time went on, it looked like the men were getting hot and sweaty. I'm sure they did, so they were taking off their coats and untying their ties. They just sort of looked disheveled after a while.

TI: And for you at this point, it was your mother, you, your younger brother, younger sister, so there were four of you?

FD: Uh-huh.

TI: And do you recall kind of your room in the barracks, what that was like?

FD: Oh, yeah. I do remember... well, I was rather upset when I saw where we were supposed to live. I said, "This is just one room and we're supposed to live here?" Then I noticed that there was a hole in the ceiling, in the roof, I said, "Oh my god, what's that for?" And so somebody said, "Oh, that's for a stove that's supposed to be put in here." And I said, "A stove? It's about a hundred degrees now, what do we want a stove for?" But it turned out that in the winter we did need a stove. But the stoves didn't come until the second winter, which I thought was horrible.

TI: So how did they heat the rooms then?

FD: They didn't heat the rooms. We froze to death the first winter. Or not really "to death," but it felt like it. And then the rain would come in through that hole in the roof.

TI: So they just didn't... yeah.

FD: Well, I don't know why they didn't time things better, that is, it was stupid to take us to the camp if it wasn't ready yet.

TI: And so did people, I guess in other rooms, just cover up the hole because, to stop the rain and the dust?

FD: Well, they'd have to climb up on the roof in order to do that, 'cause there was no ceiling.

TI: So when you first get there, you get into the room and set up, what else did you, what other memories do you have of those first days in Poston?

FD: Well, somebody came around and delivered iron cots for each room. And then they gave us great big cotton sacks, one for each person, and they said, "You have to fill these with straw, that's what your mattress is going to be." And so we had, they dumped piles of straw in each block at a certain location, and so we had to go there and stuff our mattresses with straw.

TI: And do you recall what it felt like the first time you slept on your straw mattress?

FD: No, I don't recall that, but I recall stuffing my mattress with the straw and grumbling to myself over, well, the injustice of it all.

TI: Yeah, no, I can see that. And so once you get settled into your apartments, what happens next? I mean, you're still going to school, I mean, do they start school up pretty soon? What happens next?

FD: I have an issue with the word "apartment." They used, I think they used the word apartment to describe our rooms to make it sound better for the general public. But then I think that they should be honest and call them rooms, because we didn't have an apartment. An apartment consists of, that is, more than one room, you have at least a bathroom. But we didn't even have a bathroom, we just had one bare room, and that was all, to live in. And then they brought the iron cots and no other furniture, and yet they had the nerve to describe them as "apartments."

TI: Yeah, that's what the documents called them, "apartments," and they gave them numbers, but essentially they were army barracks on the outside and partitions generally about four rooms, with each a separate entrance. And I guess the rooms were different sizes depending on how large your group was. And so you had four in probably just a small room.

FD: But I thought it was pretty nervy calling them "apartments."

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2016 Densho. All Rights Reserved.