<Begin Segment 10>

KP: So you went to Marysville.

TT: We went to Arboga. See, we didn't go to Walerga in Sacramento here, they sent us to Arboga in Marysville.

KP: And where did you gather to leave? Where did you meet to leave?

TT: I didn't catch that.

KP: When you, when you went to Marysville, how did you get to Marysville?

TT: Oh, they took us to, we had to meet, I think we had a packing shed in Florin where I think we had... what is that big market there right now, by the railroad tracks? It's that lumberyard there. That used to be a packing house there, on the railroad tracks. So we had to go there, then they put us in an old Greyhound bus and took us Marysville.

KP: And what was Marysville like, the assembly center?

TT: Well, Marysville was, the camp was, it wasn't a permanent camp, it was an assembly center. So what they did is, as I remember, they had an outside shell. You could see the (1x12) tarpaper on the outside, well, you've seen the building. Nothing on the inside, and they had a wall partition, but the top was all open. You had no -- that's one thing you missed, privacy. Then they had, it had an outhouse set up. But that was one of the hardest things to get used to. Men it wasn't so bad, like females, they sat side by side, back to back. That was one of the hardest things to... and taking a shower, like Issei like my dad, they're used to the hot tub, they had to take a shower, and you never had hot water, because they took the hot water in the kitchen. I think that was one of the hardest things. Another thing was, for the Issei parents, the family structure was gone. In other words, you eat in the mess hall, like on a picnic table. Like us, you made new friends, so you go eat with them, other family or they come and sit with you. The family structure was gone.

KP: Who all went to Marysville in your family? Your grandfather...

TT: Our whole family went over there.

KP: So it was your grandfather, your grandmother.

TT: Yeah, because we were living together, don't forget. My grandfather passed away the year before, good thing he did.

KP: Okay, he passed away before you...

TT: Oh, yeah.

KP: So how many of there were you in your room in...

TT: Well, in our family, we had five, five, twenty by twenty-five. Then if you had, let's say newlywed, they had a fifteen by twenty-five, the width of the barrack. Anyway, that's all they had room for, one cot for each person, and a potbellied stove, sixty watt light bulb. But at better than... see, we went to Marysville and Tule Lake, so it wasn't too bad. But you get like, you go to Heart Mountain, you heard about Heart Mountain, it gets thirty below there, and that's all you had, no insulation. Had a stove there, but you could... got a lot of bugs and all that, swampland. They had to cut their own firewood. [Laughs] Like us, we had coal.

KP: So you were only in Marysville for about a month?

TT: Yeah, about a month.

KP: What did you do while you were there?

TT: Almost nothing. But I go around and talk to schoolkids and say, "You know, it was one of the hardest things to do, sit around and do nothing." You know, you talk about the prison riot, when you don't have nothing to do, I could understand why. You go crazy. There's no magazine to read or nothing, don't forget. And then eight hours a day... we used to play cards, pinochle and bridge or something, but you could just do so much of that. That's why when I went through that, and then you hear about the prison riot, they had nothing to do, bored, I could understand why. You go crazy.

KP: Did your dad or anybody work at Marysville?

TT: No. See, don't forget, Marysville is an assembly center, so they didn't have no, like warehouse, like Tule Lake they had warehouse, packing house, carpenter shops, paint shops, things like that. It was like a village in itself. But in Marysville, just assembly center, so they had absolutely nothing. That's all I remember they had. And hastily put up, they had one, one by six and one by twelve. [Laughs] They had a window, one of those, what they called Oklahoma, that old building they had, the shuttered thing. There was no screen, nothing. And I still remember that, the Arboga assembly center, it was next to a slough, and it was in the springtime, boy, you turned that light on, about forty-five minutes, there was so much bugs in there, you couldn't even see the light bulb. Because there was no screen on the window. But one thing you missed, you lose your privacy. Everything was communal, don't forget. See, like over in the assembly center, the whole top was open. They had partitions, but the whole top was open. So that's why if a couple had an argument, you could hear the whole barrack, 125 foot, everybody could... [laughs].

KP: Any stories about the assembly center that come to mind?

TT: Oh, yeah. You had a lot of family argument, you could hear that. [Laughs] And then you get that, old man, middle of the night, about nine, ten o'clock, every night, he'd get gas, and the whole barrack, "Okay, now, we can go to bed." [Laughs]

KP: How was the food?

TT: Food was just like a, similar to army, because don't forget, the army controlled that. So you didn't have no Japanese food. Towards the end we got a little rice, but as far as the food goes, it's edible, but as far as the cook go, because, like, we had farmers cooking for the whole block, what is it, twelve, fourteen barracks. So it wasn't all that great, but it was edible. But at least once a week, we had this, I still remember the doggone fish. I think it's codfish, it was terrible. Either you eat it or go hungry. But then some of those mess hall, don't forget, in the one camp, what we, like us, we were sixteen, seventeen years old, we hear that we're gonna have something else, we have some beef stew or something, we'd run over there. To hell with our mess hall, we'd go somewhere else, wherever we heard that they have good food that we like, we used to run over there. But then they give, start giving the card for meal ticket for the block, we had to cut that out. Because each kitchen had a limited amount of food for so many, amount of people. We used to chase all over heck for food. [Laughs]

KP: So anything else come to mind about...

TT: But one thing, you know, as far as getting a girlfriend, wasn't bad at all because you're sixteen, seventeen years old, each block, if you want to meet somebody, it was simple. But then you see some good looking gal you want to meet, you find out what she lives on, that's all you had to do. So far as that goes, I was seventeen years old, sixteen, seventeen years. Like us, we didn't have no chores to do, so that's all we, more or less go to school, that's all we had to do. So if you want to cut school, you cut school, whatever. Another thing we used to do is you get a, here we had a test. And what we do is we had a lot of the sulfur in the coal, you have a hot fire going, we stoke that stove and that sulfur, that smoke come in the classroom, it gets so bad, no class. [Laughs]

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.