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MN: And then you mentioned that you ended up at Poston Camp I.

TY: Camp I.

MN: What were some of the first things you did when you got there? You talked about the hay, what other things do you remember doing when you first arrived there? Did you go to the mess hall and eat?

TY: I don't know if we did anything that first night or not. First off, I wouldn't have known where the mess hall was. 'Cause we were at the end of that particular block, and the mess hall was at the other end. If you saw the map, you see how they are. They have the latrines in the middle, or as they call them, "restrooms." And then, down the middle, and then they had one storage facility, and off to the right side of this double wide building which was the... nani, the mess hall.

MN: So what about the first few days? Did you go out and explore?

TY: I don't know. It was too wilderness-like. Here it was, well, no streets, they just had cut down some bramble bush, I guess that was it. So there wasn't much of anything to entertain yourself with. So you stuck around the camp, right around the block, 'cause that's the only place you knew. You didn't want to go too far, and if you had into another block, who's to say you wouldn't have gotten lost? 'Cause they looked identical, every last one of them. I know I didn't for the longest time want to leave my block, 'cause I knew where lived. And I think it was grilled into me what my block address was, which was Block 28-8-D. I said, "Oh, okay, I've got that clear." So if I should ever get lost, I could just say that. Block 28-8-D.

MN: What was your reaction to the public restrooms?

TY: Well, you know, initially, it was kind of shocking because when you went to the restroom, there were all of the stools. And you looked down and you saw every last one of anything. And I think some of the people are, Japanese would say, "hazukashii," because they've never been to a place where you had to expose everything when you sat down. And then you try to ignore everybody by looking straight ahead, so no eye contact. And I think as kids we learned that, don't embarrass anybody, look straight ahead. Don't sit here and talk to anybody, just straight ahead. I think that's one of the good things I learned.

MN: How about the mess hall? What was your reaction to going into this huge place and eating with a lot of people?

TY: Well, you know, they had tables set up for families, so you go there, pick up your metal tray, and walk down there and they would put whatever they put on it, and then you'd walk back to your table. And then of course we had a whole table to ourselves, 'cause there was eight of us. So, you know, we would fill up a table.

MN: And did you usually sit with your family?

TY: Initially I think we did. We all did at the beginning. Later on, they started to know friends, and so they were then off to several friends.

MN: Now what sort of food do you remember eating in the mess hall?

TY: Well, one thing I remember totally that I still hate today is... it looked like shoe leather and it tastes like shoe leather. And I thought that's what it was supposed to be until I went into the service. I had it then, and I said, "Oh, this is good, what is it?" And they told me and I said, "Oh, I would never have guessed, because I remember in my childhood I hated this stuff 'cause it was terrible." Because the people that they volunteered to cook, the reason they volunteered is they got the leftover nani or the food or whatever. And so that's what they do, but they didn't know anything about cooking. They just do all that, you could just throw stuff on top of the stove and cook it.

MN: So is this like a steak or was it liver?

TY: Yeah, it's liver.

MN: Oh, liver.

TY: Steak? Are you crazy? [Laughs] Liver. And so when I went into the service, they said, "We're having liver," and I thought, "Oh, yuck." And I was reluctant to eat it, but when I looked at it I said, "Oh, this doesn't look like that gray stuff I had in camp." 'Cause they didn't know how to cook it, 'cause it was actually cooked. And said, "Oh, this is good." So after that, I had no problem eating liver. Liver and onions is my favorite dish.

MN: Now, the winter of 1942 you were only four years old, but do you remember when Poston Camp I had the huge strike?

TY: You know, it was hard for me to say that I knew the whole huge strike. They had a strike, but then there were always kind of like a lot of unrest in the camp anyway. So I don't know if I could discriminate between one or the other. So yeah, it happened, but I don't know that I knew the difference.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.