<Begin Segment 10>

TI: So when you went to Santa Anita, can you describe kind of your first impressions of what you saw at Santa Anita?

TO: Well, it was... I thought it was beautiful, the garden, I mean, the grass and all that. And we were led to this stable, and there was nothing there. They just had an asphalt floor, and oh, it smelled terrible. Then we, not whole family, my mother and sister, three of us... I think, oh, brother, too, one little stall. And we had to sleep, the first night, we had to sleep on the floor, cement. And they gave us, not a mattress exactly, but it was a bag, and we had to fill it with hay or whatever that was piled there. Told us to make a mattress out of it, so that's what we had. And a blanket for each of us. Then they gave us a cot later, about seven days later.

TI: Can you remember what you were thinking or feeling, especially those first couple nights, first sleeping on the hard floor, then later on on these bags of hay? What were you thinking when this happened?

TO: I thought we were coming to the end. Just lost all hope, you know. Things were just dark.

TI: Yeah, that must have been really, really difficult.

TO: It wasn't easy.

TI: And talk about sort of the activities in Santa Anita. There were lots of people there at this time, so how were people organized during this time?

TO: Well, we were all given different work, and I was what they call a... oh, what would they call that now? Milk mother, I guess, taking care of the babies' formula. And they were distributing canned food for the children.

TI: And so where would you go, would you go to the various...

TO: There was a big gym, or not a gym... well, more like a gym. The horses were, it was like a big hall, and there was, that's where we took shower also, and that's where we got together and did a few things. When we first went, got in there to Santa Anita, they didn't have any food. So we went to what they call the Blue mess hall, we were the first one to, to get in there, so they were not prepared for us. No food, of course, first day they gave us old bread and milk, and so we were supposed to, they gave us a dish, told us to soak that bread into milk, mix it up and that was our food.

TI: Wow. So that first day was really, must have been really difficult. So you slept on the hard ground, and for food they gave you old, hard bread and milk, and you would just have to soak it and eat that.

TO: They had a, what they call a mess hall, so there were about forty in each mess hall.

TI: And what about things like the shower facilities and things like that?

TO: Oh, it was in one, for one block, I guess, there was a separate, well, in the center, more or less, of the... we called it, it was Block 10 where we were. And so it was a shower and toilet facilities there. For the whole forty people, there were about -- [coughs] excuse me -- probably three showers. We all had to get in line to take showers.

TI: So at Santa Anita, what was the most difficult part of being there for you?

TO: Well... getting in from the farm and not knowing anybody. We got all mixed up -- I mean, our neighbors were not in our block, you know. They tried to mix it all up so that wouldn't be no... you know, get-togethers. They were afraid of us, I guess, that we would do something, a riot. So they just split us all around the whole Santa Anita area. So our neighbors, we seldom see them.

TI: So it was hard not to be able to see your neighbors, your friends.

TO: Friends, yes. It was, that was difficult.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.