<Begin Segment 8>

AC: Now you said that you went to this "assembly center" in Salinas. How did you go from Hollister to Salinas?

IK: Bus. They took us by bus.

AC: What did you think when you entered this place?

IK: What could you think? [Laughs] "What is this, anyway?" That's what everybody was saying, "My god, what are we doing here?" Well, they couldn't figure it out either. Like I say, an order's an order, there was nothing we could do about it. There was some, lot of crabbing, but like I say, what could you do about it?

AC: You had a horse stall, essentially?

IK: Yes.

AC: And you had to make your own mattresses. What was that like? What did it smell like?

IK: Well, we had to clean it up first. We swept it out. I'm used to horses. [Laughs] So it didn't bother me too much. Because that smell was there, there was no doubt about that.

AC: So how long were you in this horse stall?

IK: I think we were in there from May 'til July. Yeah, I think about three months. But, you know, to pass the time away, we used to play, we'd make up baseball teams and played softball. In fact, at one time, we were playing softball, and some people came in for news, I guess, filmed our playing out there. I don't know what they said about it. Probably, "These guys are having fun in camp." [Laughs] We had to do something to keep ourselves occupied. We couldn't just sit around, so that's what we did.

AC: How many people were in this "assembly center"?

IK: I have no idea. There was quite a few people. We held dances and things like that.

AC: Were there any guards at this center at all?

IK: Oh, yeah, oh, yeah.

AC: What were they like and where were they?

IK: Well, they were on, they had towers. They weren't exactly towers there, not like what we had in camp. In camp we had towers where the soldiers sat and watched. They had soldiers there, but I don't know where they were stationed. I didn't look for them.

AC: They didn't really have much contact with them?

IK: No. They'd come in, like issuing us our blankets and things like that, they did that. Then they'd be at the office, but we'd never see them.

AC: So what else, you were issued blankets, what else were you issued when you were at this "assembly center"?

IK: Let me see. I know we had blankets, and they gave us these bags to put the, stuff the straw into. That's about it, I guess.

AC: How were you fed?

IK: Well, we had mess halls. Oh, they gave us a cup and a spoon I think it was we had to carry with us. And if I remember correctly, I'm not too sure about that. But then you go in the mess hall and you have a buffet line, you just take what you want.

AC: What kind of food did they have there?

IK: Well, we got, like in camp, we got a lot of mutton and a lot of beef tongue and liver, things like that. And I had to make rice, I used to cook rice, and we tried to make the best okazu we could. Okazu is a mixture of vegetables and whatever you have. And then we cooked that tongue and things and put it out there, but a lot of people wouldn't eat it. So we got by. It wasn't the best of foods. [Laughs]

AC: So you made your own okazu in the "assembly center"?

IK: Oh, yeah.

AC: Where did you get the... in the cafeteria you'd get the food?

IK: Uh-huh. Well, they had this mess hall, they used to call it, well, we used to call it a mess hall, and they, I guess the army would bring in the food, the raw food, and they cooked it all in there. We had our own cooks and waiters and things, and they'd serve the food in there.

AC: And you said that your friends would come by, but they wouldn't allow you to do anything?

IK: [Shakes head] I didn't care for that.

AC: How did you feel?

IK: It's disconcerting, I'll tell you that.

AC: And you said they had a double wall of barbed wire, they could reach through and you could reach through?

IK: No, it's just a single wire. It wasn't barbed, it was just a wire fence. We just touched fingers between the wires. They were good enough to come see us anyway. Those people were pretty good friends of ours, and we played basketball, football.

AC: Did you ever see them again after that?

IK: No. My friends that I know like Roy Uyeno, he says he sees them, he knows them.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2004 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.