<Begin Segment 6>

VY: So let's step back and talk about when you were sent to camp. Which camp did you go to?

MK: Poston Camp I, Arizona.

VY: Okay. And how did you get there?

MK: We were put on the train and then we went south to Barstow, California, and switched over to a bus that took us to the camp.

VY: So you didn't stay in any other detention facilities.

MK: No, straight to Poston.

VY: So what was the train ride and the bus ride like? How long did it take?

MK: You know, it must have been a day.

VY: And when you arrived at Poston, do you remember what your first impressions were when you got there?

MK: Yes, it was not complete. And it was very dusty, and I was really disappointed. And oh, I remember we had to fill a large canvas bag with hay, that was our mattress, and then we had the cots that we had to pick up to take to our barracks and set up our bedding.

VY: So you said it wasn't finished. Did your family help with any of the construction of the camp while you were there?

MK: No.

VY: And what were they constructed of?

MK: Wood and tarpaper on the outside. And I guess in one barrack there were four units per family.

VY: Was there any adobe?

MK: Oh, that was a school building if I recall.

VY: That was separate. So what about the barracks? What were they like?

MK: Well, the wall between one room to another was not very solid. It was a piece of long wood, and some of them had knots, those round things. And you could almost look through the slat between each piece of wood, and you could hear conversation next door.

VY: Now, were all six of you in one room?

MK: Yes, and we put up a partition with sheets for the kids, dividing parents and kids.

VY: So that was you and your three siblings and your mother and your stepfather.

MK: Yes. And we just had a hanging bulb for a light.

VY: How about the food and the water? What was that like?

MK: Yes, we had to report to the mess hall. A person in charge would bang on the garbage pail, calling us that it was lunchtime. And so we would line up and go in, sit on those long wooden table with the attached... not separate chair, but like benches attached to the tables, and we had our section. But eventually... our family kept together, but I noticed that other kids, they sat away from their families and just sat among friends, and that was something new. And I remember one incident -- of course we ate whatever was offered -- but I remember our neighbor quite didn't like the food that was served or the way it was cooked or prepared. And so one day at lunch, this cook came out, held up the plate that he had prepared, and said that he had heard some complaints. And he was very upset and angry and he just threw the whole thing into the garbage. He didn't name the people, but he says, "If you're so unhappy, go elsewhere." And they did, they went to the next block from then on to have their lunch.

VY: Oh, so that was an option? You could go to a different block to have lunch?

MK: Well, no, that was just that incident, as far as I know, because it made the family very uncomfortable, too, to come back.

VY: Was the cook Japanese? [Narr. note: Yes.]

MK: No, (the food) was whatever. And I remember one day I heard that we were eating horse meat, and it was not like beef or pork, so maybe it was horse meat.

VY: How about when you first got there, the tap water?

MK: Oh, yes, I got sick. Just for a couple of hours I didn't feel good after drinking that water.

VY: Do you remember if anybody warned you about anything like animals or bugs?

MK: Oh, we were warned about centipedes maybe falling off from the ceiling, and the gila monsters, that they would hide under the barracks. And I did, in fact, see one scatter away.

VY: A gila monster?

MK: Yes.

VY: That sounds frightening. [Laughs]

MK: Yeah.

VY: So about the physical construction of the barracks, how did they fare during the different weather conditions?

MK: Well, when we had dust storms, it became very dusty inside. Because the wooden slats were not tightly constructed, and through the eves or something, between the walls and the roof, somehow the fine dust would get in, blow in. And the people that lived on both ends of the barrack got it the worst.

VY: Were you on an end?

MK: No.

VY: Actually, where were you?

MK: Block 14-7-C is the way it was.

VY: Camp I?

MK: Yeah, Camp I.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2018 Densho. All Rights Reserved.