Densho Digital Archive - Akiko Okuno Interview (denshovh-oakiko-01-0022)

<Begin Segment 22>

KL: What is your visual, describe what you saw when you came to Poston and you got off the train?

AO: When we got off the train, it was in Parker. And we had to board buses to go down. And it was so hot and these buses were not air conditioned, so everybody rolled the windows down. Well, the road from Parker down to Poston was unpaved, so there was dust. And by the time we got to Poston, there wasn't a black head in the bus, everybody was covered with dust. That much I remember, because it was so dusty. And then we stepped off the bus in what felt like ankle deep dust. And then handed, I mean, here you are just dying of thirst, and this hot tea and the salt pill. Then after you had drunk that and taken your salt pill, then they showed you the pile of hay, straw.

KL: Who showed you?

AO: There were people who had gotten there ahead of us, they were from L.A. area, and so they were very helpful. They helped all the new arrivals, and they gave you your canvas, and you went over and they went over and they helped to stuff the straw in canvas bags, and we would have to... that was our mattress. And I don't know whether we walked to... well, we must have had to walk, because we were in the next block. Because I don't think they drove us in trucks to where we were. Some of the people, because of where the administration was, this was Block 32, and then Block 17 was right next to it. So it was close enough.

KL: Which block were you in?

AO: Seventeen.

KL: And 32 was the administration?

AO: Well, no, it was next to administration. They may have... because we did have our bags with all our bedding and stuff. Or they were identified, so probably we walked to where we were supposed to be. And then the trucks brought all the luggage over.

KL: Were you in Camp I?

AO: 17-11-C.

KL: Who was in there with you, 17-11-C?

AO: Seventeen... oh, it was just our family. My father and mother and the four girls. So fortunately, you don't need the blankets, or you use the blankets as the walls.

KL: You were issued the blankets?

AO: Yes.

KL: What else... was there any other bedding that you were issued?

AO: Well, we were, the mattress, so-called mattress, and we had cots. They were canvas cots, and in that heat, we would take the cots out, wet it down, and then just sleep on the wet cot.

KL: Where did the water come from?

AO: They had, each barrack had a faucet at the end.

KL: What else was inside the apartment?

AO: One light. And I think there was a stove in there. But if not then, then eventually a stove was brought in, because the winters do get cold.

KL: Yeah, you didn't need it then.

AO: Yeah, in the summertime we certainly didn't need it. But it was bleak.

KL: Did you come with other people from Gilroy?

AO: Yes, there were some others. Of course, all of us in Block 17 had been at the Salinas Assembly Center. There weren't that many. Quite a number of Gilroy families were there. Two barracks faced each other, and then were backs to these two. So right across from us was the Uyehata family who had been our neighbors.

KL: Oh, in Gilroy?

AO: In Gilroy, uh-huh.