Densho Digital Archive - Tom I. Mine Interview (denshovh-mtom

<Begin Segment 19>

TI: So describe going to Salinas. So who was with you?

TM: Well, they said, "Take whatever you can take." Well, there's nothing, so I don't know what I took, I just threw the clothes and, I don't know what I took. I have no recollection what I took with me.

TI: And so it was you, your mother and who else?

TM: My sister.

TI: Your sister, so three of you?

TM: Yeah.

TI: And where in Watsonville were you picked up to go?

TM: Oh, we were at the Civic Auditorium. We met there, they told us, "Be there," I mean, "Be there, and then from there, we're gonna to go the depot, get on a train," and then they didn't tell us where we were going, so we just met at the Watsonville Civic, not Civic, but Auditorium. Not Auditorium, what do you call that now? Vet's Hall. That's where it was.

TI: Okay, the VFW hall or something?

TM: Veterans Hall, yeah.

TI: Veterans Hall. And describe how many people were there, what did it look like that, that day?

TM: Well, it was sad. Yeah, it was, nothing was said. We just wondered if this was the last of seeing here or what, we never knew exactly what's gonna happen, so we just got, took orders to be by, at the Veterans Hall, and from there, it was shipping someplace. We didn't know, knew we was going down south, they didn't say Poston, I don't think.

TI: But first you went to Salinas, right?

TM: We're here, then we went to Salinas Assembly Center. We stayed there for about three, I think three weeks.

TI: And so describe what that was like. Had you ever been there before?

TM: No, they put up this barracks and put us all in barracks.

TI: And so what was Salinas like for you when you first saw it?

TM: Well, I don't know, it's hard to describe. We just wondered where, what's gonna happen to us. I would say, "What's gonna happen?"

TI: And so you were an older Nisei and you had these younger Nisei. So at Salinas, what, what type of things would you do to keep people busy?

TM: Well, we'd, I was in charge of the activities, so sports, tried to keep the fellows busy. Baseball, organized baseball and volleyball, whatever. Social stuff, they had some dancing and this and that. Just, just to keep a little active going instead of just sitting still all the time. So kind of take it day by day, and they'll tell us what to do, so we just more or less, just abide by them. We had no agitators or anybody else. Some places had some agitators around, you know. But luckily, we had no agitators or anybody, just everybody seemed to be calm about it. There's nothing you could do.

TI: So you mentioned organizing, kind of like sports and dances.

TM: Yeah, I organized baseball teams.

TI: I was talking to, to Mas Hashimoto the other day, and I guess for his family, a tragedy happened.

TM: Yeah, yeah, he lost a brother.

TI: His brother, playing baseball.

TM: Baseball, or... yeah, something happened, exactly what happened, I know, yeah, he lost a brother.

TI: Did you know anything, do you know what happened at all?

TM: No, not exactly. I knew, yeah, I knew that happened, and I knew Mas was, he was a younger fellow, but I knew his older brothers. Yeah, that's right.

TI: Yeah, that's unfortunate, a tragedy.