<Begin Segment 9>
KB: And do you remember how you left home with all of you to go to the assembly center?
SO: I don't know, we got there by car, but I don't know if it was a cab or...
KB: Or a friend. Do you remember having to say goodbye to your friends?
SO: Yeah. Some classmates came to the assembly center.
KB: To see you?
SO: Yeah.
KB: Did you have to talk to them through the barbed wire?
SO: Yeah, through the fences.
KB: What did that feel like?
SO: Terrible.
KB: Do you remember specific feelings as you're talking to them through there?
SO: You're happy to see them, but they were on the other side of the fence, and you were on this side.
KB: What do you remember about that assembly center other than having your friends come?
SO: It was a terrible place to be. It was smelly.
KB: Why was it all smelly?
SO: No privacy.
KB: No privacy? What did it smell like?
SO: Well, it was a horse barn, or animal... it was terrible.
KB: How did it sound?
SO: Very non-private. You can hear the next, everything, because it didn't have a roof on top, it was just partition-type.
KB: How long were you there?
SO: From May to around early September.
KB: What was the weather like?
SO: Hot and humid and terrible smell.
KB: What about the food?
SO: Well, it was just food, I guess. But the bad part was they give you... what kind of shots were there?
KB: You had mentioned maybe typhoid?
SO: Yeah, typhoid shots. You're supposed to give it in three individual units, and they gave you this typhoid shot in one dose. And so a lot of people really got sick.
KB: All at the same time?
SO: Yeah.
KB: Do you remember being sick from that?
SO: I wasn't sick, but there was a lot of people that got sick.
KB: And then there's no privacy in the restrooms.
SO: Yeah, restrooms, bathrooms.
KB: How was your health while you were there?
SO: I was terrible because I had asthma. I was a sickly kid when I was young.
KB: Did they have doctors to help you, or what did you do? What happened?
SO: Yeah, they had doctors, Japanese doctors there.
KB: Do you remember how they helped you with your asthma at all?
SO: I think I got some adrenaline shots back then. I think that was about the only thing.
KB: And you were about eleven?
SO: Yeah.
KB: So you were sick part of the time, but do you remember playing with friends, too?
SO: Yes, there's a lot of children.
KB: So there were people that you knew? Were there people that you didn't know also?
SO: Yeah, mostly I didn't know them. But the kids, they get to play. You didn't have to know them, I guess.
KB: Did you have equipment to play with, like for baseball?
SO: I think people from the outside brought in some play equipment. Because they played baseball with them.
KB: Did they play softball, too, just baseball?
SO: I think they played softball, too.
KB: Did you participate in that?
SO: No, I was too young.
KB: So what did you do with your friends when you were there?
SO: I don't know what kind of games we played. We'd find something to do.
KB: So when you got up in the morning, you kind of hung out with your friends until mealtime?
SO: Yeah.
KB: Was there anything in the meals that you really hated?
SO: [Laughs] If you're hungry, I guess you'll eat mostly everything.
KB: I've heard people talk about beef tongue and all that stuff.
SO: Yeah.
<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.