To view video, Click Here. Rudy T. describes suffering through the unbearable heat at Poston.

"And the day we got to Parker, Arizona, 114 degrees. And later on, as I thought about all this that happened the day we got there, people were fainting like flies, because none of us prepared for any of this. And the first thing they said when they dropped us off at the barracks, "There's the baled hay, there's a mattress cover in the barracks for each one of the beds. Fill it up with hay. That's your mattress." Well, hell, you never used a mattress. It was too damn hot. We used to sleep outside. And we're dumb, see, because we don't know nothin' about scorpions and stuff like that. And finally, one guy hollers, "Hey, look at all this damn thing crawlin' around under our beds." And they were scorpions, see, because the body heat. And the scorpion liked heat. So we found out they were scorpions, and you liable to die if they sting you. [Laughs]"

Rudy T. Interview - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.

Nisei male born in 1925 near San Jose. Grew up in Salinas, California, until he went to Japan at the age of thirteen. Studied in Japan until about 1939. Incarcerated at Salinas Assembly Center, California and Poston incarceration camp, Arizona. Volunteered out of camp to serve in the U.S. military. Fought in Europe as a battalion runner for the all-Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Single-handedly captured a group of German officers, fought in the famous "Battle of the Lost Battalion," and was present at the liberation of Bruyeres. Was recruited to lobby Congress for passage of the 1988 Civil Liberties Act as a representative for Nikkei veterans, and proved invaluable in garnering support among particularly resistant members of Congress. Rudy passed away on December 4, 2004.

Courtesy of Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project