Densho Digital Archive - Nancy Iwami Interview (denshovh-inancy-01-0014)

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MA: And can you describe the day that you were leaving for, was it Salinas Assembly Center that day?

NI: Yes, well, we had to, I think someone came and loaded our large sacks or whatever on a truck and took it to the, what is that, auditorium, that's where we all met. And it was really sad getting on that bus. We were the first ones to leave Watsonville, and my mother-in-law was not that old then, she was in her sixties. She really acted like an old person, I felt sorry for her, you know. So I had to more or less help her a lot, so my husband had the responsibility of carrying, if there was carry-on luggage, well, he took care of that. Got on the bus and as we were going down Main Street, some of those people were still, they were standing around watching us go, Japanese, I don't know how many days it took us before they got us all into Salinas Assembly Center. Oh, it was sad. Tears just, you know, rolled down my eyes to think that I'm leaving, for one. But that's the way I felt. I wasn't bitter, I was more afraid of anything, more than being bitter.

MA: I assume they, the government didn't tell you, really, much of what was going on, right, or where you were headed or for how long?

NI: They told us we were "dangerous enemies" or whatever. They drove us on the bus to Salinas. We got there, oh my gosh. It was shock. It, it was an experience to see all barbed wire and sentries up there on that tower. I was afraid they might shoot us. Didn't happen, but...

MA: And what were your living conditions, your housing in Salinas?

NI: Housing? It was just one big room. I don't know if there was a cot in there, there must have been a cot. And my gosh, there were just the three of us, so it wasn't a big room, but it was large enough. But just imagine, like my family, there were still six -- no, not six, two were married already, so five of them and then my parents. And just a thin wall separating the families. Later on we said, "My gosh, I wonder what we, we sounded like with five kids and parents talking so loud," and the neighbors just maybe a couple. They could hear everything.

MA: You had no privacy, yeah.

NI: No privacy. The bathrooms were, they called it a latrine or, latrine for so many barracks, and it was just a hole, no water. Before you know it, had to redo it again. Those were, that was ugly. And the food, too, wasn't very good because everything was prepared by -- I don't know who prepared it, the Caucasians, I guess. Rice was cooked in great big tubs, I've never heard of it at that time. But we survived.