<Begin Segment 8>

LT: This is part two of our interview with Dr. Kenji Yaguchi on Wednesday, April 2, 2014. So after Executive Order 9066, you and your family were went to Puyallup, the assembly center, and it was actually familiar to you.

KY: Oh, yeah. It's only three miles away from our farm, and it was a fairgrounds. We used to go all the time, and as FFA president, we used to have displays at the fair every year. So I'm real familiar with that.

LT: And to clarify, you were president of the Future Farmers of America at your high school.

KY: Yes.

LT: Well, this time, you were going not for display, not for special programs, but you were going there with your family to live. How did it look different? What did you see, what did you smell, what did you hear?

KY: I wasn't very happy with the life in the Puyallup Assembly Center. We were in shacks, you know, those buildings, a barrack, if you talk on this end of the barrack, you could hear it on the other end. It was all open. Single wall, knotholes, so it was not very good place to stay. And for a mattress, they gave us mummy bags, and they had straw in the field ground. And we had to go (there), gather the straw, put it in the mummy bag, and that was our mattress in Puyallup. They gave us two blankets, no sheet, (only) two blankets.

LT: What is a mummy bag?

KY: Mummy bag is a bag U.S. army gives you. If you're killed in action during the war, they put you in a mummy bag. That's what a mummy bag is, it's a huge bag about that wide, six feet, no, about seven feet. About six and a half feet. We stuffed it with straw, and that was our mattress.

LT: Did you know it was a mummy bag when you were sleeping on it?

KY: I didn't know what mummy bag was until I asked what the military used this for, and that's what they told, somebody told us it was the bag they used when you were killed in action in the field and put you in there and took you wherever they had to.

LT: How did it feel after you learned that?

KY: Oh, I had no choice. [Laughs] Either sleep on that or sleep on the floor.

LT: So at camp, how did you spend your time?

KY: Well, you know, when we first went in there, they gave us some bad food. Everybody got sick, diarrhea, vomiting. But after a while, after a month or so, the food improved and at least you could eat it. But at first it was just lousy.

LT: What kind of food, can you remember what you were served?

KY: Horse meat. [Laughs] A lot of horse meat. Something must have been spoiled, either the meat or something else.

LT: And how was the horse meat prepared?

KY: Well, they made goulash out of it, made steaks out of it, stews, everything.

LT: Well, it was at Puyallup where you said that your classmates came to visit you.

KY: Yes. You know, that was, for me, that was kind of real emotional. I was happy to see them, but at the same time I was beginning to feel sorry for myself, which I caught myself doing and I said, "You can't do that. You've got to keep going." So after I talked to myself to behave like I should, and everything turned out okay.

LT: Now, were your friends able to come into the camp to visit you?

KY: No, no. They were on the outside. Outside of the barbed wire fence.

LT: So how did you converse with them?

KY: Well, the fence is right here, they're here, I'm right here. So there was no problem talking with each other.

LT: Do you remember the conversations that you had with your friends?

KY: Oh, gosh. Everyday functions, school, sports, whatever. Whatever high school kids would talk about, that's what we did.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.