Densho Digital Archive - Mas Hashimoto Interview (denshovh-hmas-01-0018)

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TI: Okay, so that was May, and then eventually you were transferred to Poston.

MH: To Poston, Arizona, where it was so hot. You know, you go from cool, foggy Monterey Bay to 100, and almost 120 degrees temperature, and I remember half the group at Parker train station, half the group had heatstroke. And, but the guys from Lodi and Sacramento, they're used to the heat. We were not. You can always tell who's from the Monterey Bay area. So we took salt tablets, you know, days before Gatorade. We drank a lot of water, but I remember the water smelled bad. It was kind of a rusty brown, the pipes were rusted through. And, but we had to drink the water. I had salt coming out of my pores, go like this, you lick yourself, you're salty, it ruins your clothes, the sweat. But we had to take the salt tablets, drink a lot of water.

TI: And so what, what did you do at Poston? I mean, it's hot, and what were some of the activities that you were able to do?

MH: Well, Poston, we went to Poston Camp 1 first, and then a whole group of people moved out of... Camp 1 had about 10,000 people. Then we moved to Camp 2, Camp 3 was being built, Del Webb company was, had the contract for building. So we went to Camp 2, a whole group from Watsonville, but we weren't all in the same block, we were scattered throughout. But at least a lot of Watsonville people were in Camp 2. I, we were assigned to Block 220, Barrack 12, Room A. You had Jiro, the Sugidonos, they were in the next room. I forgot who was next to them. And then the Hamadas were on the end -- no, Hiramotos were on the end. But a lot of Watsonville people were in Camp 2, so that was reassuring. Everybody's in the same, you know, has the same problems. If you had a family of ten or more you got two rooms. Couples, bachelors, Barrack 14 had lot of small rooms, just enough for two cots. So if you're a newlywed couple, you get a little tiny room, and it was right next to the kitchen.