Densho Digital Archive - Jiro Sugidono Interview (denshovh-sjiro-01-0017)

<Begin Segment 17>

JS: So from there, in July, I think, (yes), we started going into camp, Poston.

TI: And so you said that was like the very hottest time for, for Arizona?

JS: Oh, it was hot enough already, but their camp had Camp 1, Camp 2 and Camp 3. Camp 1 was mostly from southern California.

TI: And so initially you went to Camp 1.

JS: (Yes), first, (yes).

TI: And then what was it like to be with the, the southern, more southern California, Los Angeles people, what was that like?

JS: Well, you don't know any of the people, you know, my father and mother, especially my mother didn't like it. She wanted to go to Camp 2 where they know all the people. There was quite a bit of Watsonville people in the same area with us.

TI: In Camp 1?

JS: (Yes), there's the Wadas, there was Sakai, Hayashi, all those. They were, I don't know why we got to shipped to, sent to Camp 1. Because near the end of it, we went to Camp 1, and the other ones went to Camp 2. So my mother asked to get transferred, so we went to Camp 2, we went to way on the 220, that's way out in the boondocks, they were, some of those barracks weren't even finished yet, they're still fixing it.

TI: But I want to go back to Camp 1, and was there, did you see differences between, like, the Los Angeles families and the Watsonville families and how they did things?

JS: Well, no, 'cause I never did associate with 'em. But some of the younger guys, I noticed they were more open, you know. They talked big, this and that.

TI: So they were kind of the big city, big city guys?

JS: (Yes), the Boyle Heights guys and things like that. I don't know if they were troublemakers or not, but anyway, they were something like a gang, anyway. But I didn't have no trouble with them.

TI: How about things like what they wore? Did they wear different clothes than what, what you wore, or was it about the same?

JS: (Yes), they were basically the same thing. Maybe some of those guys had, at that time, short pants, things like that, I don't know. Maybe their hair is a little different, longer. [Laughs] But then, other than that, when we went to Camp 2, we got together with most of the Watsonville guys, 'cause 220, there was 219, 220, 221 and 222, that there was a block. It was mostly Watsonville and Salinas, and they had all the people from, (Selma) or Clovis people. 'Cause they were, see, we were, we went in late, so that's why we were with the Salinas bunch.