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TI: Okay, talk about that.

GN: And then again, I don't remember getting off the train or anything like that, but I know that there were a lot of people with us, I don't know whether they were from Peru or what, but we were all together. And there were, I really don't remember it well, but I think they were, what do you call it, fumigating or they were shooting this powder thing on everybody.

TI: So you remember that. I think your older brother said, yeah, you guys were sprayed with, like, DDT, a white powder.

GN: A white powder, yeah. That I remember, a little of that. And then after that, I remember going to the camp. And then from there, we got our living quarters, barracks.

TI: Do you recall when you first got there, was there anyone there greeting you or the family or the group?

GN: I don't remember clearly all that, just remember that we were in a barracks. And the barracks just had a room where we slept, and then there was a separate cafeteria, another building where we would go and have our meal. I remember a lot of people there then. I still felt like a stranger, because we didn't know anybody. But I certainly remember the weather in Texas, in Crystal City, it was terrible, wow. That's the first time I heard thunder in my life, and that thunder was scary, oh god, that was... we were three of us in a room and we, three kids, you know, the youngest of us, and we were just crying because the parents and the sister and brother were out somewhere, I don't know, but we were just scared by the lightning and the thunder. It was the first time I ever heard it in my life, you know, that was very scary, I remember that.

TI: So was it the type of thunder that the walls would even shake?

GN: Oh, we didn't know what it was, we never heard thunder before. And then one of the things I remember was they had some activity there, they were having kendo, Japanese kendo, they were having, I remember I went to see people having some kendo lessons. That sticks in my mind.

TI: And was it like the full armor, the mask?

GN: I remember the mask most of all, because it was strange. Yeah, kendo, and that's about all that I remember.

TI: How about the swimming pool? Do you remember that?

GN: Oh, yeah. See, after that, then came where they moved us to a private home, away from the barracks. This was a single home where they put our family there. And this was different, away from the barracks, and that's where the swimming pool was located nearby.

TI: Oh, so before, when you were in the barracks, it was too far away from the swimming pool?

GN: We didn't even know about, there would have been a swimming pool.

TI: Okay, so when you went to these, the more apartment, is when you found out about the swimming pool?

GN: Yeah, actually it was a nice house.

TI: Oh, it was a house?

GN: Yeah, it was a house. It had a kitchen. It didn't have a shower or things like that, we had to go take a shower in a different building, the community thing. So then I guess it was better for us having a home where our family was all together. We had a garden in the front entrance, it was okay, I remember that, and I remember playing with my friends, I guess, we would go out and collect lizards and go catch little fish, minnow, in the creek, things like that I remember. Climbing trees, and, of course, going swimming. I learned how to swim on my own, it was just a natural for me, we just went swimming. And, of course, we found out two people drowned, right? But going swimming was fun. And after swimming we would walk home, and it's a big orchard, they were growing grapefruit, and we'd just go there and help ourselves to grapefruit. I remember that. And they had a lot of sugar cane growing everywhere, and I remember that. And they had lot of sugar cane growing everywhere, and oh that was good, we used to go and eat that almost every time we had a chance walking home. That was what we did, and there was a field where we used to go in the morning, we all lined up in the yard and we'd do exercise like they do in Japan, I guess.

TI: Well so tell me about that. When you say, so it was like a group exercise and you're all kind of lined up?

GN: Uh-huh, right, everybody was lined up and did exercise.

TI: And was it just the children or was it...

GN: Just the children, yeah. And I remember that part, and I remember the classroom or teaching or whatever, I remember none of that, just the exercising part. And we had some competition, running and things like that. I don't remember too well, but I know that we had that. And then also used to have movie nights, they used to show movies at night outside, and used to bring food and enjoy our movie. I don't remember what kind of movie it was, but I remember there were a lot of mosquitos, and it was a thing that, to keep the mosquitos away was to get some lemon and put lemon all over our body, our face.

TI: I've never heard that before. Is that, did people do that --

GN: That kept the mosquitos away. Yeah, so we used to put the lemon all over our face and arm.

TI: And it worked?

GN: I suppose it did, yeah. [Laughs]

TI: Now, do you recall, when you say movies and stuff like that, what language were you using at that point?

GN: I don't remember. You know, I don't remember what language we spoke when we were there, was it Spanish or was it Japanese? I don't remember that, it's funny. But while we were in camp, I don't remember what language we were speaking. It had to be Japanese because we never spoke Spanish. Even now, I don't speak Spanish that well. My older brother and sister, they can write, they can speak Spanish, they went to school in Peru, but we didn't. So I guess it was Japanese that we spoke.

[Interruption]

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.