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PW: What did you do to pass the time?

RO: We'd run around, just run around and just do things. It's very interesting because after the first year, because we were restricted to then how far we could move within the block itself, and then right across the street from us was... then they made a baseball diamond with a backstop and so on. And so I remember then going to watch baseball games and so on. But other than that, because the dike was basically then the boundary that was one side of the camp, and I think it was built by the Corps of Engineers because, during flooding in the desert, you had huge amounts of water that would come rushing down, so they had to go, I guess, in the construction, the camp, they had to provide some kind of a barrier, so this dike was built there. And it was probably about twenty feet high. So we knew that was our boundary, and so we would run up on the top of the dike and so on and this is where we would play. And then we got to be a little more ambitious and said, "Well, let's go on the other side of the dike." And I don't remember who my friends were, two or three friends, so we did that. And we said, "Well, let's build a little fort," and here as a young boy, I guess we could do that. But you're digging in the sand, you're digging in a place that's probably not more than eighteen inches deep, and we would scrounge cardboard and boards, and cover it and put branches on it and so on, and would crawl in there just like young boys would do. But it was very interesting, I can talk about this a little bit later, but I'll reserve that...

PW: We'll come back to that.

RO: Yeah, right. But other than that, I remember things like my father then, he would walk out in the desert, after they kind of relaxed the security and so on, even though there were still the guard towers and people in the guard towers and so on. But he would walk out in the desert like a lot of all these men, and find things that they could do, so there was, pick up pieces of wood and so on. And in one case, I remember then that I don't know how it happened, but then apparently he had killed a rattlesnake. And he had brought it back, and I remember then he had skinned the rattlesnake and then hung it on the clothesline to dry. And as a young boy, I was impressed with this, because this thing was moving. And I think back and I never asked him why he did this, but I think what it was is just a very typical kind of Japanese remedies and so on, that you take them and then you allow this to dry and you powder it and then use it for medicinal purposes or whatever. Because we certainly did not eat the snake, but it was basically allotted. [Laughs] Again, the spot memories of things that took place.

PW: Were there other family members that were with you at Gila?

RO: No. Because there were people from different parts of California, because they were not necessarily from Selma and then the surrounding communities and so on. So people that we met, there were some people, like, for instance, Del Rey, Parlier, whatever. But other than that, your family and your relationships with people is within that very small area. I can remember then that the block had a lot of buildings and so on, and it was even where the mess hall was was a barrack for all the bachelors. But so, again, that's another story because I remember then a lot of Caucasian men in suits would come every so often, and they would take people from where the bachelors were and then take them off. So I'm assuming then that that was the... I don't know if it had to do with the... what's the word I want to use? We had to sign the order to, they were called "no-no boys," would not sign allegiance to the United States, so that maybe these were people that were taken then to Tule Lake. But I remember very distinctly, because they were seeing these people that walked, I mean, they were not like us, they were Caucasians dressed in suits. And they would every so often come and round up people. But I don't remember that being, taking place within the rest of the community other than that bachelor headquarters and so on.

I remember, of course, then because they had, it was a stand, it was a wooden, not a grandstand, but a wooden area that was raised up and so on, and they would have a temporary screen. So they would show movies there then, and then you had to take your chair, and you walk over to watch movies. And I remember these 50-gallon barrels that were placed around the area that we lit to go and provide heat as you're watching, because Arizona evenings would get very, very cold. So then this stage that was there was the place where activities took place. I remember young Japanese American men then coming there, and in their army uniforms, United States Army uniforms, and they were then asked to then walk up to the stage, and they were announcing the names of these people that after basic training were going to be ready to ship out to different areas of the world, whether Europe or the Far East. So again, that's a memory that I remembered, because again, because these men that were dressed in army uniforms, having to come back then to the camp to say goodbye to their parents. What a strange thing that you have to enter into this secure area before you would find it. The relationship between security and allegiance and all that was very important at that time.

PW: Did you feel...

RO: I couldn't understand that. I couldn't understand that. I knew that we were at war, but then again, what's my allegiance to Japan? I'm an American. And so then you can't figure that out, as a young boy, why are we having this war with Japan? Because they bombed Pearl Harbor, and da-da-da. It didn't mean a lot to me. Because, again, your association is very limited to the community that you grew up in. And so then you have this other country which is then native to your father, but yet, other than that, you have no concept of what the rest of the world is like at that point.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.