Title: Letter to Molly Wilson from Sadae (Lillian) Nishioka, 6/8/1942 (ddr-janm-1-94)
Densho ID: ddr-janm-1-94
35 – 4 – C
Poston, Arizona
June 8, 1942
Dear Molly:
I sure hope you’re feeling O.K. out there in good old Boyle Heights. As for us, we’re all feeling fine but we sure would like to be back home.
I could hardly believe I’m in camp now. Remember when we used to say, “We won’t go”? Well, we sure were wrong.
We left at 8 A.M. from the old Santa Fe station and passed nothing but deserts on the way. It was a tiresome, boring, hot, and monotonous ride. There was a soldier in every car taking charge and we had a cute, nice, and friendly one for our’s– everybody joked around and talked with him. We weren’t allowed to go through to the other cars to visits our friends so I just ate, slept, and read a magazine. I had no girl or boy friends of my age in the car. We got off the train at Parker, Arizona and got on a special bus taking us to the camps. A big crowd of people, already evacuated, were there and looking hard to see if any of their friends came. We registered right away and were assigned rooms– 4 to 6 in one room. Our family got one room…
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Picture: Barrack – 4 rooms in one.
The army beds and 2 army blankets each were furnished. Everyone was running around till about 2 A.M. It sure is hot and dusty here but it’s getting better and better. The dirt is very fine and light so it’s blown around very easily. I hear it’s much better than Manzanar though. This is going to be the best of the reception centers. The mornings and nights are cool and it sure feels good but afternoons are hot as I stay home and read magazines, sleep, etc. Did you know it’s one hour earlier here than in California? It’s still light at 9 o’clock. A bunch of us girls get together and go to baseball games and dances which they have every night. Sometimes there are several dances and baseball games in one evening. The dances are held in the recreational halls and the games on big empty lots. We roam all over the camp having fun and always come home real late. I go around with Kazuko Nagai, her cousin, Teruko Nishikawa, Jennie and Irene Noda, Martha and Eleanor Kushida, Hisako Nakachi, and ugh– my sister…
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…We have blocks here just like home – Block 1, Block 2, etc. There’s a manager for every block who takes charge of everything. There are no fences or guards or curfew because we are surrounded by miles and miles of desert so no one would try to escape. There is a mess hall, laundry house, women’s toilet and shower room, men’s toilet and shower room, and a recreation hall for every block. The food is very good here except there is little of fresh vegetables. The other day we had roast pork, mashed potatoes, canned apples, broccoli with mayonnaise, tea, bread & butter, and water. We were going to have jello too but it wasn’t hard yet. There’s a soldiers’ camp next to the center as we see a lot of soldiers and jeeps. Schools, a hospital, and 3 swimming pools are being built. They’re having school up to high school as I still have to go, darn it. We have our own store, police force, library, post office, and employment office. The water is bad here so a lot of people have diarrhea or upset stomachs. Akira Izuma’s wife had an appendicitis operation and she’s O.K. now. One lady had to run to the benjo 15 times in one day…
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…There are no petitions in the shower but there are in the toilet room. No one is bashful anymore taking showers together because we’re all used to it now.
There are quite a few white people here married to Japanese. Cecelia Kawasaki’s here. This is the first time I’ve been around only Japanese people– I’m meeting a lot of girls and boys from other places like Bakersfield, Orange County, Riverside, etc. All the girls wear slacks, play clothes, or ballerina skirts and the boys wear T shirts, genes, and boots. Our little radio worked until it fell and broke but our big one won’t work out here. There’s rattlesnakes, scorpions, ticks, millions of flies, and a whole bunch of other bug pests.
I should have written sooner but I sure am busy. My father, sister, and I work as waiters in the mess hall every morning, noon, and night, and the rest of the time I sleep, clean house, write letters, etc. Kach Kusada, Miyiko Karakane, Sayeko Karakane, Fumie Oiki, Terry Tsuchimori, and a lot of others work in the mess hall too…
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…It’s a lot of fun but tiresome work. We’re supposed to get 8 dollars a month or 4¢ an hour. Doesn’t 4¢ an hour sound awful? The whole camp uses so much water for showers, cooking, watering the grounds, drinking, cleaning, etc. that the other morning the faucets were stopped for 3 hours.
Well, that’s all that’s cooking right now as I’ll close and write again later. Say hello to your mother, father, and Kenny for me.
Sadae