Citizen 13660

As soon as all the passengers had been accounted for, we were on our way. I relived momentarily the sorrows and the joys of my whole evacuation experience, until the barracks faded away into the distance. There was only the desert now. My thoughts shifted from the past to the future.

Here I was, alone, with no family responsibilities, and yet fear had chained me to the camp. I thought, "My God! How do they expect those poor people to leave the one place they can call home.

At first it was impossible to drink the water because of the strong taste from the chlorine and the pipes. Thirsty people went to the one well with good water, near the U.S. Engineer’s Office, until this was condemned as contaminated. Some braver souls managed to go into the prohibited area to the Caucasian workers’ canteen.

A group of landscape architects decided to build a lake to beautify the camp. Trees and shrubs were dug up from various places and transplanted in the center field. The size and location of a tree was no hindrance to transplanting it if the tree fitted into the plan. The workmen struggled day after day with limited equipment. For a long time we were kept in wonderment by this activity. Everyone knew the camp was not a permanent one. On August 2, North Lake was formally opened. It had been transformed from a mere wet spot in the Tanforan scenery into a miniature aquatic park, complete with bridge, promenade, and islands. The lake was a great joy to the residents and presented new material for the artists. In the morning sunlight and at sunset it added great beauty to the bleak barracks.

In the women’s the arrangement was the same, except that a half-partition separated the toilets conversationally in pairs.

Because of the injustices and contradictions nothing made much sense, making things comical in spite of the misery. Crazy things were constantly happening in the camp, with close to ten thousand people confined in an area a mile square.

Cameras and photographs were not permitted in the camps, so I recorded everything in sketches, drawings, and paintings.