Densho Digital Archive - Nancy Iwami Interview (denshovh-inancy-01-0015)

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MA: And how long were you in Salinas?

NI: I think we went, we were the first, maybe we went end of April and we left there on the Fourth of July. Sixty degrees, it's just like this in the summer in Salinas, too, it's just cool. When we arrived in Poston... well, we got on a train, and they would put us on a train, all the drapes, I mean, curtains, down. No air conditioner, and as we got towards Poston, where's that? What is that, Death Valley or wherever they go through, it was so hot in the trains. And when we got into Poston, it was 120 degrees that day. There were people that passed out. So as soon as we arrived, they gave us salt pills. Oh, jump in the shower with all your clothes on because we just didn't feel like taking it off, it was so hot. You step out, in five minutes you're dry. Never been in heat like that before.

MA: What about the landscape there? Dusty?

NI: Oh, no landscape, it was just barracks. And it was sand-like dust. When there was a dust storm, you couldn't see the next barrack. And as the people settled, the water was there so they would make little trenches or something and put water around there, plant. Japanese were very good, they planted vegetables wherever there was water. It grew because the land was so fertile, it only needed water. Watermelons just grew overnight. The first time I ever saw peanuts grow, and that was in Poston. And it was hot.

MA: And when you arrived, were you in, one of those in Camp 1 or Camp, did you go to Camp 2?

NI: I was in 2. Barrack 213.

MA: And that was with the other Watsonville, Salinas people?

NI: Well, no, it was most, around this area, there were people from San Juan, Hollister, Salinas. I wonder if there were any from Monterey.

MA: And Camp 2 was pretty much like its own isolated camp?

NI: Well, it was Camp 1 and then Camp 2, and then Camp 3, there was another one. But they were all, I guess, I don't know how it was governed or whatever, but we each had a block manager, each block had a manager. Probably block, Camp 1 had the administration, I don't know. But each camp had that.

MA: And then your own, its own mess, Camp 2, or did each block have its own?

NI: What?

MA: Mess hall?

NI: Each block had their own mess hall, each block had their own washroom and shower and bathroom, and place to eat, and a block manager. Yeah, there was a library and a canteen between the firebreaks, we called it. I didn't venture out too much, it was too hot. And besides, I didn't stay in camp that long (...). We only stayed a month, I mean, a year, and then we went out.

MA: So you stayed a year until about 1943, then you left.

NI: 1943, September, we left for Denver.