Densho Digital Archive - Massie Hinatsu Interview (denshovh-hmassie-01-0012)

<Begin Segment 12>

RP: And we're also, you were describing your trip to Minidoka.

MH: Yes.

RP: And when you got there you were welcomed by a blinding dust storm, is that correct?

MH: We certainly were. Fortunately we were on a bus. And they took us to... I'm just sure that they took us to the block that we were going to live in. And since there were, we were one of the last ones probably there were just three more blocks that were reserved for the Portland people. Our block happened to be a full block when we got there, Block 32. And later on it also became part of... half the block became the elementary school, Stafford Grade School. So people who lived in that half portion -- we were, we didn't. We lived on the other side -- they were moved again. Again, okay, they were moved again to the next block which was Block 30. We were 32, 30, and then there was 31 and 29 above us. It was, it was a blinding dust storm. It was September so it wasn't extremely hot. All I remember is just sitting on our luggage waiting for them to tell us where we, we were going to go. And, it was Block 32, E, Barrack 11, Apartment E, was our, our address.

RP: Your new address.

MH: Yes. And again, there were tarpaper on, on the outside. On the inside they were not finished. You could still see the four by, two-by-fours, etcetera. I think the ceiling was finished. I probably didn't pay much attention. And there was a potbellied stove. And that was our source of heat. In the summertime we didn't need it but we didn't have air conditioning either. So it was pretty miserable during the summer. Wintertime they dropped coal off at each of the blocks and, and we would carry it to our apartment. And can just remember in the wintertime when it was cold, that potbellied stove going full blast and it'd just be fiery-red at night. It kind of scared me. I said I hope it doesn't catch us all on fire.

RP: Fire.

MH: And it was dangerous. There were quite a few people who, you know, got burned because of brushing against or falling against those potbellied stoves. But I loved those potbellied stoves. I just... I don't know why. I did. And since we did not have a father -- [cell phone rings]

Off Camera: Sorry, I'm not answering it.

MH: Since we did not have a father, we didn't have a carpenter in our family. So we just kind of had to do. I don't think we had any chairs. We just sat on our cots. My mother finally got somebody to build a little bit of shelf space for some of the things that we needed it for like toothbrushes and all that kind of stuff that you couldn't keep in your suitcase forever. And there were no partitions in the room itself and we did have iron cots and not canvas cots. And we had regular mattresses and not the kind that we had in the assembly center. And we still had our olive drab green blankets. So that was, that was the extent of the furnishing really in the apartments.

RP: What, what did you see in terms of... were there any improvements that you saw in your barrack room over the time that you were in Minidoka? Other than the, you know, getting somebody to make a little bit of furniture?

MH: I think that some people, you know, were fortunate enough to maybe have enough money to buy curtains. I don't know if we had curtains or not. I really don't remember that. No closets so we just kind of had orange boxes. You remember orange boxes? Right, that we'd put our stuff in. There were other people who made desk, drawers, etcetera. But we never had that. So our furnishings were very bare.