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DG: Can you tell us... I'm asking because we are going to use this for the memorial. And specifically we have that story wall and the walk that you took to get -- that everyone took to get on the ferry when you left. Can you tell me more about that day, which was March 30, 1942, when you had to leave your house, to go away? Can you tell me what you were feeling and what it was like?

AS: Gee, I don't know. It, it was hard on my folks. The kids, I don't think took it that hard. That's my thinking. You know, I was, what was I, nineteen at the time? You know how I was, I was just a "Joe Blow," I mean, I was just a nobody. It didn't bother me, really. But my folks, it took a toll on the folks. 'Cause a lot of 'em down there passed away when they got down there. And you know, the summer heat and I'm telling you, that summer heat'll kill you down there. Well, it's right next to Death Valley. I don't know.

DG: Did you have friends that came to see you off or came to your house to say goodbye?

AS: Came to my house?

DG: Yeah, like Caucasian friends that didn't have to leave?

AS: Well, there was no room in the house. Where were you gonna move? All it is is... you know the barracks were only about sixteen feet wide and you got bed here, bed here, bed here. All it is is you come in and sit on the bed. No room. No living room, nothing. Tar paper on the outside and... I mean...

DG: What did you do with your time?

AS: On the farm?

DG: In camp.

AS: My dad worked on a farm in the camp, but I worked for my cousin on the farm. You know, he was harvest... they raised the, what was it, potato, sugar beets, stuff like that. Then my dad worked on the camp farm. They raised, they raised a lot of watermelons there.

DG: In the desert?

AS: Yeah, they, well, they exported it because they had so much there. So they made money on the farm, they didn't lose money. But do you know how much we got paid? Twelve dollars a month. And then I made camouflage net for the army. That was twelve dollars a month. For a whole month now. I, I couldn't see that. Make all that camouflage net... you know how much that cost? Then I left there, that was enough for me. I can't... I think I made dollar sixty cents an hour, or something like that, when I was workin' on the farm. But that's better than twelve dollars a month.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.