Densho Digital Archive - Eddie Owada Interview (denshovh-oeddie-01-0015)

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EO: And then finally, the third day, we pulled up to another railroad siding, ordered to get out, desert, desert country. And then back onto the trucks. Truck rumbled off. And I remember it going over into a gated area and it was Pinedale, California, the assembly center, a newly constructed one. We were pretty lucky that we ended up at one of those that was pre-constructed, pretty good, pretty good condition. And we got off inside the compound there and they assigned us to the different barracks where we would be living.

AL: Who did you live with?

EO: Our three brothers. It was just three of us.

AL: You had your own barrack?

EO: Yes. No, not the whole barracks. Barrack was divided. Barrack was 60-70 feet long, divided into various different apartments. For... this was same as in the final relocation center. First we were all concentrated in these assembly centers. They were 20 feet wide and for a family up to five people, four, three, four, and five, they were given one of these 16 by 20 foot apartments. Couples with maybe just a little child or a single person or just a couple were given a smaller one, 20 feet by about 12 feet. That's where we were assigned. That was it. They had a central toilet, central shower, central mess hall that each person in the block went and used.

AL: Did you work in Pinedale?

EO: In Pinedale I did not. No, there wasn't much work for us in Pinedale.

AL: So how did you spend your days?

EO: Just kind of walking around, talking with other people, jumping water puddles, things like that. Going to the central canteen, they call it the PX, Post Exchange, army term. And I remember back home we would hear about people buying Kleenex, those paper tissues that just came out, it was really the fad, Kleenex. And I remember we had a few dollars from selling our horse and selling our truck. And I remember going to camp, I had something like $129. Had it in a little money belt around my waist. And I gave my brothers a few dollars. At that time, a dollar was a lot of money. And while we were in the assembly center there, it's a funny thing. Being born in an all male family, we were pretty dumb, pretty ignorant, pretty stupid about women. We didn't really know any and we were kind of afraid of them. But we didn't know about women. And my brother, one of my brothers, John, had a thought of Kleenex in his mind, Kleenex. So he went to the post, the Post Exchange to buy a little package of Kleenex, 'cause we would see people with Kleenex, using them, and said hey, yeah, that's pretty neat. When he got there he looked at some of the packages there, Kleenex, it started with a "K" right? So he bought a package and brought it home. Opened it up, it was Kotex. [Laughs] And so... and we didn't know what it was. But, that is one of those things that evacuation taught us. So, because of the evacuation, we learned a few things that isn't taught in school. But we learned because of the congregation in camp and as a mixture of the male and the female, boys and girls, guys and gals, mothers and fathers. So we got some education there.

AL: Did you meet any girls that you, you were fond of in Pinedale?

EO: So we got a crush on? No, not, not in Pinedale. Probably later on in Tule Lake and Minidoka.