Densho Digital Archive - Mae Hada Interview (denshovh-hmae

<Begin Segment 5>

Masako H: So where did you go when you were ordered to leave your home?

Mae H: We did have a vehicle. Maybe we rented it to put our only possessions we could carry on it to go to the assembly center and on Columbia Boulevard. And so whatever we could carry, that was it.

Masako H: What was it like in the assembly center?

Mae H: Well, those of us, I was the median age. I discovered later at the time that were families that went. Some were older than my age, some were younger, and it was all quite a curiosity for us. It's an adventure. Maybe we weren't as devastated as much as the Isseis who lost everything. But we were checked in, and we were given our, whatever room we were assigned to. My mother being alone with the two daughters, our best friends, the family let us join them, so we were in a larger room. And we were given bedding. And when the bedding ran out, I heard some of the people had to put straw bedding in bags for their mattress. I felt sorry for them. But we did have a cot and a mattress for our room. And they were all in wooden framed, no ceiling because the whole structure was high ceiling stable-like places for animals, originally. They just floored that and put partitions and a cloth curtain for a door. An open ceiling, you could hear everything; people talking, coughing going on all night. I'll never forget that. I'm sure we all had difficulty adjusting to that, sounds at night, for instance.

Masako H: How many people were in the unit that you were in?

Mae H: I have no idea. You mean the whole assembly center?

Masako H: No, no, no, just the room that you were in.

Mae H: Oh, okay. Seven.

Masako H: There were seven of you?

Mae H: Uh-huh. Yeah. I think the brother of the other family was already gone, uh-huh.

Masako H: What did you do in the assembly center? Did you work or...

Mae H: Oh, we were all supposed to volunteer to do something. I didn't have any special skills, so they assigned me to the front desk to guide people to their, when visitors came in, we were told to go into a certain area where we can receive them, and we were run and get those people that were being visited and find them. And I really didn't have to work too hard at all, but we didn't earn much either. We were given a few dollars for, so we all had jobs, something to do. If it wasn't that, it was working in the kitchen, you know. And they had a, let's see, the boys had their sports, girls too. They had badminton. I also had some entertainment. I played tennis on a arena floor that was covered with ply boards that had knotholes in it. And since tennis is the only thing I knew how to play, I enjoyed that there. Being a typical youngster, sometimes the ball would fall through the knothole. [Laughs]

Masako H: Was that in that big arena area, then?

Mae H: Uh-huh, uh-huh. That was covered. The government did the best they could with the budget they had, I'm sure.