Densho Digital Archive - Margaret Saito Interview (denshovh-smargaret

<Begin Segment 9>

KP: So when you arrived in Wyoming, what did you expect?

MS: Oh, well, I didn't expect anything but I was just, it was like just, it was really in the middle of no place. It was just empty, just desert, and I think it was about September maybe, or August or September. But it was barren, I can remember sagebrush, things like that but there was nothing. And I don't know how we got to the camp but they probably trucked us but I don't remember getting on the truck or getting off, things like that, yeah.

KP: How was Heart Mountain different from Pomona?

MS: Oh, well, Pomona everything was close I think, because it was small and it was a small... well, people from other assembly centers all went to Heart Mountain so it was big. It was much grander than the assembly center. And there were no trees, nothing, just barracks, mess halls and there was just...

KP: What did you do when you got there?

MS: Well, I don't know what we did. I'm sure we... well, I don't know... I'm sure there were cops and things like that so I'm sure we tried to get the beds set and things like that. But I don't know where we put things because there's nothing in that barrack except a pot belly stove and there are windows but there's nothing else.

KP: What did you think about being out in the middle of the desert like that?

MS: Well, I don't think I had a thought. Yeah, I'm sure I just don't recall.

KP: Did your dad work while he was in camp?

MS: He worked in the... I don't know how they determined what they were going to do... well, I'm sure doctors did what they did but other people 'cause there was no farming. But he worked in the mess hall and at the beginning my mother didn't work. But he did work in the mess hall. And he's told us this so we know this.

KP: What were the mess halls like? Do you remember that at all?

MS: Well, there were just tables and benches and it was, I don't think we were used to a cafeteria style of anything. You lined up, every place you lined up, I think.

KP: And did you go with your mom and your sister?

MS: Probably, probably in the beginning. I don't know though. I think, and I've heard other people say this was the breakdown of the family because you did make friends of all these people that looked like you. And so sometimes you would sit with your friends and things like that. I think in the beginning we were in that Block 17. So we probably did follow our parents and do... but if my father was working in the mess hall he wasn't with us when we were going to meal.

KP: Do you remember your block number? You were 17. Do you remember your barracks and --

MS: It was 17-10, it was the middle barrack, it was either C or D. I think it was D, yeah. Well, in that block our neighbors were the Okamotos. And then they eventually came to Tule Lake.

KP: Did you know the Okamotos from before?

MS: No, not from before. But they were from southern California and Jimmy Okamoto, he was kind of in the middle of the, they had many boys. But he was in the middle, he was the one that was shot by a guard at Tule Lake. There was a movie From a (Silk) Cocoon, it was made by somebody here, Satsuki Ina, she's the filmmaker. I saw it again this year at a film festival and I talked to her and I said, "I remember Jimmy Okamoto," because in that film it shows the headlines of that paper of Tule Lake. And it's barely mentioned in any of the books about camp but I do recall it and we learned about it, well, in Heart Mountain that he was killed. And I think that's so sad. He was just a gentle person and I don't know what the circumstance was but what a loss... I mean, waste.

KP: So school started in Heart Mountain for you?

MS: Yes. I was in fifth grade, sixth grade, seventh grade.

KP: What was it like going to school?

MS: I don't recall too many things in school in Heart Mountain. I don't recall anything in the fifth grade. The sixth grade I had Mr. Jennings who used crutches. He had a broken leg and I don't know if it ever healed. But the only thing I remember is a incident where after I came back from the restroom he shook me and that really surprised me.

KP: Why did he do that?

MS: Well, he said I didn't ask for permission to go to the restroom. And I said I did but anyway so that's the only incident. I do recall people in the class that I may have... well, they were later in my seventh grade class. But not much else like what did I learn, I don't recall what I learned.

KP: You were playing the clarinet in the fourth grade?

MS: Yeah, but I no longer played anything after that. Yeah, so that was the short...

KP: Were you involved in any sports in school?

MS: No, I wasn't. So they were uneventful years. Seventh grade, I still see people, even in Sacramento, there is somebody in my seventh grade. And he goes to the reunions, too. So we just talk about that. And then there was somebody in my maybe sixth grade or fifth grade that I later knew at Berkeley. She was a roommate at Berkeley. So people have come up later in life but not that many, except at these reunions.