Densho Digital Archive - Sachi Kaneshiro Interview (denshovh-ksachi-01-0010)

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RP: This, this situation of volunteering, you talked about a conversation with your mom or about going to volunteer. And, there was, was it Maki who was the woman who was the social worker...

SK: Yes, yes.

RP: ...who approached you about going to Poston?

SK: Yes, uh-huh, uh-huh.

RP: Can you tell us a little bit about that?

SK: Well, I had so much respect for her I think I would have gone with her anyplace. But she just asked me if I would be interested. And I said, "Only if my family can go with me." So she contacted somebody with the Western Defense Command and they said, oh yeah, they'll make sure that my family can follow me if I volunteered to go to Poston. Well, I went to Poston, (my family) went to Wyoming. So, maybe (it was) the logistics, the whole complicated situation. Anyway, they did not follow through on that. But, it wasn't Maki's doing, 'cause she had gotten the approval of somebody in the Western Command. But she couldn't follow through either because we were way out in the desert.

RP: Lead us through the events that happened in getting to Poston. Did you, did you travel just with Maki or did you travel with a large group of volunteers?

SK: Volunteers. Yes, busload of volunteers.

RP: Where did you, where did you leave from?

SK: We left from the International Institute in L.A. And, it took us a good part of the day to get to Poston because we hit (...) a sandstorm, a real bad one, before we got there. I guess it was pretty close to the border of Arizona. I know the bus driver pulled to the side for a while and then after he thought that it would let up a little he started going again. And, but by the time we got to Poston there (were) still waves of sand so that you couldn't really (see the camp), it was surreal. I mean, you just see tops or pieces of barracks through all these waves of sand. And, yeah, it's kind of a blur in my mind now.

RP: Welcome to Poston.

SK: Yeah, right. Yeah. And there was a guard there who took down, well, he spoke to Maki 'cause she was the, the head of the, the group. And...

RP: Do you know anybody else who was in that group of volunteers that went to Poston?

SK: That I'm in touch with or...

RP: Or, did you know any of the other people at that, during that bus trip?

SK: I didn't know anybody.

RP: Just Maki?

SK: (Yes). (Just) Maki. She had brought with her ten girls from Hawaii who were living at the YWCA residential facility (as) they were in L.A. to go to school. And, when the war broke out they (were) prohibited from going home to Hawaii so she brought them along with her to camp. But, we occupied what they called a girls dorm, dormitory. It was just another barrack except there were no partitions.

RP: The group of volunteers was composed mainly of young people?

SK: Oh, yeah.

RP: Young Niseis?

SK: Young maybe some middle aged, but they were all people who had skills, some skills, except for us. You know, carpenters and people who volunteered because they wanted to contribute something. Because we were to set up the whole camp, she was selective in asking people to go with her.

RP: So Maki was the person who --

SK: Yeah, uh-huh.

RP: -- actually sort of recruited people to--

SK: That's right.

RP: -- with these specific skills.

SK: And she knew a lot of people because she was a leader, a Japanese American leader, probably the most well-known female leader in the community.

RP: What was her last name?

SK: Ichiyasu.

RP: Ichiyasu?

SK: Uh-huh.

RP: Can you spell that?

SK: I-C-H-I-Y-A-S-U.

RP: I see, okay. Was she also involved in the Japanese American Citizens League?

SK: I'm not sure. I don't know about that. But she was always with the Y and then she was the director of the women's Y in Honolulu for a while 'cause she and I lived together there for about six months. Then she returned to San Francisco, the headquarters in San Francisco. She died in 1970 or '71 after she had come to visit me in L.A. Well, she was actually visiting the different Y groups in Southern California. But she had a heart attack.