<Begin Segment 7>

PW: You haven't said which camp you ended up in.

RO: Yeah, Gila. Yeah. Canal Camp. In Gila, there were two camps, Canal Camp and Butte Camp, and Canal Camp was the one that was, I guess, associated because there was a canal that ran on one side, and then a dike on the other side. And then Butte Camp was two or three miles up in the upper elevation.

PW: Again, you were old enough to have distinct memories, like you said.

RO: Oh, yes, from that point on.

PW: So tell me more. What were your impressions of the full camp, but also your barracks? Do you remember which barrack your family lived?

RO: Sure, yeah, 24-7-A. Because as we were loaded in these army trucks and so on, and then all the luggage and so forth was brought later on. But I remember then taking this bumpy, dusty ride in these trucks, we were in the back of that thing, and eventually got to this point. And we were unloading, and so all these buildings were lined up, row after row after row. In fact, there were places in which they had to have boards that were put over... not ditches, but where were they were putting in water lines and things of that nature and so on, so then you had cross over that to get into the camp, but there was a fence that you had to go by. But then for some reason, we were assigned in to 24-7-A and that was my address. This building was very new, very, very new, and trying to settle into this building, which had four apartments. And there was no wall in the building itself so I remember my father then, because there were blankets and so on, putting up a line to separate where the bedroom area is and then the living area was, or whatever it was called, it was just a space. Because basically then we didn't have running water, we had to eat at the mess hall and go to the washroom to bathe. So that became my home, it was a very, very exciting time. Because, again, you really did not understand what was happening other than the fact that then the war has caused the evacuation of all Japanese Americans from the West Coast.

PW: Did your family stay together a lot?

RO: Oh, yeah. And what happens in a place like this where you have then a situation where, because you get to know the people in the barracks that you have, the four families and so on, and so then since we all had to walk down to the middle of the block to go to the mess hall, and we had to line up there and so on. What families did was then they would then kind of stake out one of the picnic benches that this is where we would eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, and every family basically did that and it was just kind of understood. So yeah, you line up, metal trays, you walk through and so on. And the cooks were all Japanese American, Japanese and Japanese American and so on, and you weren't quite sure what you were eating because you're so used to your mother and father's cooking, and there were these people that are cooking this other food which tasted a little different. And I remember as a young boy that I always asked for just Jell-o to put on the tray, and then we would then welcome her to our little table, and that's for three meals a day.

PW: Did your parents work while they were in camp?

RO: Yes. In fact, I don't remember when, but after I think about the first year or so, my mother got a job, I think she was working at the mess hall and so on, sixteen dollars a month, I guess, is what they were paid and so on. And eventually, then, there was a request, an order by the government that they needed young men to be able to go and harvest and plant crops in the Northwest, Idaho and that area. Because, of course, the young men had all been, gone to war and so on, so my father then applied for this and so on, and I remember he had an ID and so on. I mean, I don't even remember him taking off, but I remember he was gone for months at a time. So then the only memory I have of that time was then there was an ID card that he had with his photograph on it. So you get along and you go to school and you had teachers that were hired to teach. You were in this barrack with long benches for desks, and everybody in the place looked like you. [Laughs]

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.