Our Barrack Home - Block 23, 6-D
I was born in the Heart Mountain hospital on June 11, 1943. My parents, Fred & Yuki Yonemoto, brought me home to Block 23 - Barrack 6-D, which is the address in a Heart Mountain residence directory my father kept. My parents kept a baby book in which they recorded everything that happened to me, at least for the first five months.
Our home was small, 20 x 20. The room came furnished with a stove, a light fixture in the center of the room, and one army cot and two blankets for each occupant. There was no kitchen, no bathroom, just one room to be used for sleeping and living. **
Our home was small, 20 x 20. The room came furnished with a stove, a light fixture in the center of the room, and one army cot and two blankets for each occupant. There was no kitchen, no bathroom, just one room to be used for sleeping and living. **
Each Block had 24 barracks.
Each Block had 2 mess halls, communal bathrooms - one for men and one for women.
A laundry room, an ironing room, latrine, showers and a recreation hall were located in the center of the block and were communal. All of these facilities required a person to leave his room and brave the elements to do anything. Wyoming winters are harsh. There was snow and strong winds. There was very little privacy. Of course, I don't remember the hardships that my parents and others had to endure. I was only 2 and a half when my family left Heart Mountain. I just remember a little red glass cup filled with freshly fallen snow and sprinkled with sugar. My first snow cone.
My maternal and paternal grandparents were in the same Block 23, but not in same 6-room barrack. Tsunejiro Udo and his wife, and their daughter, Yoshiko, lived at Block 23, 5-F, and Tsuhegusu Yonemoto and his wife lived at Block 23, 23-F.
Each Block had 2 mess halls, communal bathrooms - one for men and one for women.
A laundry room, an ironing room, latrine, showers and a recreation hall were located in the center of the block and were communal. All of these facilities required a person to leave his room and brave the elements to do anything. Wyoming winters are harsh. There was snow and strong winds. There was very little privacy. Of course, I don't remember the hardships that my parents and others had to endure. I was only 2 and a half when my family left Heart Mountain. I just remember a little red glass cup filled with freshly fallen snow and sprinkled with sugar. My first snow cone.
My maternal and paternal grandparents were in the same Block 23, but not in same 6-room barrack. Tsunejiro Udo and his wife, and their daughter, Yoshiko, lived at Block 23, 5-F, and Tsuhegusu Yonemoto and his wife lived at Block 23, 23-F.
Personal Photos of my family at our barrack.
My father had a camera and took a few pictures of our family by our barrack. I'm the little girl with curled hair; the younger girl is my cousin, Margaret Kai, whose family lived in Block 14, 10-C.
Click on any of the diagrams and photos for an enlargement.
My father had a camera and took a few pictures of our family by our barrack. I'm the little girl with curled hair; the younger girl is my cousin, Margaret Kai, whose family lived in Block 14, 10-C.
Click on any of the diagrams and photos for an enlargement.
* The 3 diagrams came from a book called Heart Mountain, A Photo Essay, A Reflection on the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, written by Eiichi Sakauye, a friend of my parents, and a fellow internee from the Santa Clara Valley. Mr. Sakauye whose family raised pears was instrumental in the creation of the Japanese American Museum of San Jose. The book which was published in 2000 is available at the museum.
**The families in Block 23, Barrack 6 were 6-A: Masami Takano of San Francisco, 6-B Seitaro Nakagawa of Benjin, WA, 6-C: Kanichi Okita of El Monte, 6-D: Tsunezo Yonemoto of Sunnyvale, 6-E: (unknown), and 6-F: Sashichi Inouye of Mountain View. The directory only listed the head of household. The Inouye family was a good friend of the Yonemoto family. Sashichi was the father of Charlie Inouye who settled in Gunnison, Utah during the war. Sashichi was also the father-in-law of Henry Mitarai.