<Begin Segment 20>

TI: So after six months in Utah, it was cold, it was dangerous, so you returned to Poston?

SK: Yeah.

TI: And then, and then what did you do?

SK: Well, when I came back, I kept applying to get deferment because of my father's, through the Red Cross. And they were saying, "Well, if you work on a farm," I might get deferred.

TI: So getting a draft deferral, to not join the military.

SK: Yeah. So Seabrook Farms was recruiting.

TI: So explain that. When you say Seabrook was recruiting, how did they recruit?

SK: They came to the camp and say, "You want to work out, get out from the camp and work?" And being Seabrook Farms, we thought it was a farm. So three, four of us said, "Well, let's go." So went there and found out all it was is, Seabrook Farm was a farm, but the place they were recruiting to go work is a freezer plant, packing house. And there were prisoners of war working, Germans and stuff, working there, too. And about two weeks later I get a notice, "Report to the draft board." And I had to go to New Jersey, Fort Dix...

TI: Before we do that, tell me a little bit more about Seabrook. So, like, how many Japanese were there when you were...

SK: I don't know. There's quite a few. Lot of people went there.

TI: And what would be, kind of, the type of work that would be done there?

SK: I don't know what other people did, but bunch of us, we were in packing house, repacking frozen food. Blueberries and peas and stuff, that's been frozen when they picked it, then they bring it out and we put it in these little boxes and stuff.

TI: And what was the work like? Was it hard work?

SK: No.

TI: So you'd work, like, regular eight-hour days?

SK: Yeah.

TI: And then what would you do, kind of, the off time? Like on evenings or weekends, what would people do?

SK: I don't know. I never went out to the town or anything. I don't know anything about any cities around there, anyplace. Even when I was in the military by Fort Snelling, which was Minneapolis, St. Paul, I never went to the town, so I don't know.

TI: And so if you were not drafted, would you have stayed at Seabrook? Was that a pretty good place to be?

SK: No. I would have come back to California somehow.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Watsonville - Santa Cruz JACL. All Rights Reserved.