by Yoneo Kawakita, as told to Ruth Sasaki
“I remember driving over a hundred miles to Price, Utah to get coal for the camp.”
I was a young man in Topaz; I graduated from high school in 1942. I had hoped to go to college, but the war had other plans for me.
Finding myself in Topaz “Relocation Center” in the Utah desert, with nothing but time on my hands (as I was done with school), I started working as a truck driver.
As truck drivers, we got to leave camp and spend time on the outside. I remember driving over a hundred miles to Price, Utah, to get coal for the camp. There was a narrow road going up the mountain, and occasionally we had to back up to let another truck go by!
On our $18-a-month salary (the top salary for internees was $19 a month), we would sometimes stop at a drugstore to get ice cream.
I also remember transporting internees who had day passes into Delta. I drove a flatbed truck covered with canvas. The back end was open. The road was so dusty that when the passengers emerged from the truck, they would be covered in white powder.
Truck drivers also had certain privileges, such as being able to eat in any mess hall in the camp; so we used to try them all and figure out where the best cooks were!
About the contributor: Yoneo Kawakita grew up in San Mateo, CA, where his father worked for the Leslie Salt Company. He was a senior at San Mateo High School when the internment order came through, and missed his graduation. He was incarcerated in Tanforan and Topaz before joining the military. He and his wife Yoriko live in San Mateo.
Copyright 2018, Yoneo Kawakita. All rights reserved.