Gila River Internment Camp

Working in the Camp

"It was about 115 degrees."

"I volunteered to go to the next camp...I was living with my brother. My brother decided to volunteer with me! He left his family and we went just the two of us...I didn’t know where it was and when we left, we thought we were going to go to a real cold area so I had boots, long johns, wool socks, and everything. When we volunteered, we went to Gila, Arizona, and it was about 115 degrees. It was kind of rough for a while until they started giving us a little money to buy shorts and stuff like that...

We got a job in the kitchen in Gila, about half a block from the school. I was getting paid eight dollars a month and my brother was getting twelve dollars a month because he was out of school. I was a school kid yet. We worked six days a week in the kitchen..."

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