Densho Digital Archive - Tommy T. Kushi Interview (denshovh-ktommy-01-0014)

<Begin Segment 14>

RP: Tell us about your experience, even though it was just one month, did you form some impressions or memories about your one month in the Marysville Assembly Center?

TK: Oh, man. The worst thing was, first thing you saw was barbed wire fence, and a guy with a tommy gun, and the gate. And I said, "Holy smokes," the first time I seen a tommy gun.

RP: Was this a fairgrounds or...

TK: No, I think it was just... it wasn't a fairground, it's just an open field.

RP: And they just built barracks?

TK: Yeah, they put barracks in there. I forgot how many. There was, I don't know how many people were there, but we had five hundred people to a block, five hundred people to a block. And the food was bad. They says, "Hey, if you work in the kitchen, you get maybe some extra food." [Laughs] So a lot of us volunteered to work as a dishwasher.

RP: You said that you were supposed to graduate three days after you were evacuated. What were your feelings about being denied that opportunity to graduate with your class?

TK: Oh, that kind of hurt, because all year, all four years, you looked forward to marching down the thing. We said, "Oh, man." Well, what are you going to do? It's government. So anyway, some teachers, they knew who was in that, so they brought the diploma and gave it to one of the girls. So we got the diplomas.

RP: The teachers brought 'em to...

TK: Yeah, some teachers. I don't know, I think she was a gym teacher, she and another teacher brought the diplomas to one of the girls, and she passed them out.

RP: In Marysville?

TK: Yeah.

RP: Ah, and that's how you got your diploma. Did you, later on in life, did you have a chance to attend a graduation ceremony in the '90s?

TK: Class of... what was it? Class of '92, that's fifty years, they invited the class of '42 to their exercise, see. And so a few of us went. I mean, not everybody came. Lot of 'em said, "Oh, hell with it," you know. So we went. Oh, out of 130, maybe thirty people, thirty students might have shown up. Not the Japanese, but the Caucasians. And at that time, I had lost my annual. I don't know who, where I lost it, but they had an extra one so I got one. And I was able to talk to some old friends. Before that, I think we had some reunions, so we met some of the old... but to go to the graduation exercise. But we didn't, they just... we just sat in the stage, and they didn't call us by name. They says, "Well, you could leave now," so we left, and they had their graduation next. But we didn't get our diploma then. Then later on, I think one of the students wrote and says, "Hey, we didn't get our diploma." But I said, "Yeah, we did, they gave it to us." But they wanted to... but I didn't go to that one. They had a separate graduation or whatever, but I didn't go to that one. 'Cause I says, "Hey, I already got my diploma," I said I don't want to...