Densho Digital Archive - Isao Kameshige Interview (denshovh-kisao

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AC: So you rode into Parker, Arizona. Was this another assembly point?

IK: No, no, it was just a depot there.

AC: A depot.

IK: And then by bus we went into Camp I, it was about a twenty-mile drive.

AC: In Poston?

IK: Poston.

AC: Poston.

IK: Like I say, there was three camps, and we were in Poston I.

AC: Describe this camp. What was it like?

IK: Well, you've seen pictures of it, of course. That's just the way it was, it's just barracks, lined up barracks, and they had blocks. Each block, you know, Block 16, we was in Block 16. We was in Block 16, there's Block 32. Each block had about a dozen of those barracks, and you had a mess hall with each one, and you had a community bathroom and you had a community shower, and that's about it. And you make do with what you had.

AC: There was barbed wire all around this whole place?

IK: No, there wasn't. Yeah, I guess there was. Yeah, there was barbed wire, and then there was a sentry point on top, and there was a gate that you had to come through. Yeah, there was, come to think of it. I never went to the edges, so we was in the middle of the camp.

AC: How did you feel when that bus pulled in, you see the gate close behind you?

IK: [Laughs] You don't see it. We're just looking ahead to see what we're getting into. And when they assign us our barracks and our room, so then we just, my folks and I, we just carried our luggage and went there and that's what it was. They just had cots sitting out there, and they issued us blankets and that's about it.

AC: So just you, your mother, your father, and your sister. Where were your other sisters?

IK: Well, they were in, one of 'em was, moved to Texas, she wasn't there. The other one was in a different block, because she was married, and she lived in Sunnyvale, so it was a little bit different. And so they lived in a different block, but they moved out right away. They went to Seabrook Farms instead.

AC: So you could move out of the camp?

IK: Well, there were requests for workers, that's when you signed up to go work someplace, and there was a big request from Seabrook Farms. And they had a camp over there, and they lived in homes, though, but they allocated certain homes that they could have, and they were small ones that the workers used to use to have before. But a lot of the workers quit because they went in the army or went to work for the government, for building ships and things like that. So they were short of workers. And so they requested it, and this bunch went over there, and they had a big group over there. And they've got a museum there, too. I went to see it, in fact. They had it in the basement of their activity hall, and it was similar to -- have you ever seen our museum here? Oh, you have? Well, I went to see their museum, and I went to see the museum at, in Washington, D.C., they have one there. I haven't seen the one in L.A., I hear they have a nice one there. But I'm proud of ours, we have at our, Four Rivers here. They did a real good job on that.

AC: Now, you've mentioned that when you moved into your barracks, the floor was open. What do you mean by that?

IK: Oh, it's just boards put together, see, and there's cracks in between the boards. And, well, between the rooms, too, there's cracks and there's knotholes in the walls that you could see through. [Laughs] The girl next door covered hers. But, yeah, it was just bare barracks with tarpaper on the outside. But the longer we stayed there, the people worked at it, and they made, some people had little fish ponds in front of their door, they made gardens, and some had some elaborate deals and made it look real nice, and they had a lot of signs up saying, "Walk in, double in, walk in," and, oh, there was a lot of names that they had, that they put in on their own. And they made it pretty nice with what they had. And they made a lot of benches with extra wood. Like my dad and a lot of other people that went and collected, I forget what you call those weeds, but there were some places over there that had iron wood, and they were looking for iron wood. People found iron wood, and then there's shrubs there that they made canes with. Then they took the roots and made ashtrays and things like that. Some people made some nice canes and ashtrays. Nothing else to do, so that's what they were doing.

AC: So what kinds of things did your family to do make your little place in this barracks more comfortable?

IK: He wasn't very artistic. [Laughs] My dad wasn't. We just had the bare minimum for what we needed. There was a potbelly stove, and we had a table and chairs, that's about it.

AC: What did you burn to keep warm?

IK: Oh, we had to collect wood. I think they had coal, if I remember correctly. You had to go get it, but they didn't have too much of it. But mostly we collected wood.

AC: So did they fence off a large chunk of this desert to go scrounging for wood?

IK: No, they'd sneak out. [Laughs] Well, not exactly. There were a lot of freedoms to go out.

AC: Oh, so you could leave the camp for a little while?

IK: Well, if you call it leaving the camp. I wouldn't say leaving the camp, because where are you gonna go? It's all desert all around us. You can scrounge around on the outside of it, but that's about it.

AC: So how did you get out through the fence?

IK: Well, that's the reason at first I said there wasn't any fence, but I remember there was a fence, but I don't think it was that severe of a fence.