[Letter to Clara Breed from Tetsuzo (Ted) Hirasaki, Poston, Arizona, August 27, 1943]

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[Letter to Clara Breed from Tetsuzo (Ted) Hirasaki, Poston, Arizona, August 27, 1943]

Maker Hirasaki, Tetsuzo

Date1943

Mediumpaper, ink

DimensionsH: 9.875 in, W: 8 in (sheet); H: 3.5 in, W: 5.5 in (envelope)

ClassificationsArchives

Credit LineGift of Elizabeth Y. Yamada

Object number93.75.31JH

DescriptionTranscription:
August 27, 1943/Dear Miss Breed,/There is an old saying, "Tempus fugit." How true--I have just awoken to the fact that quite a number of months have flown by since I last wrote to you. Since I started work May 17 as a barber (the only one in Camp III until three weeks ago) time has gone by so fast that it scares me. Because we're so busy at the shop the work hours simply fly. Usually I find myself quite tired after a day's work so that whenever I have any spare time I lie down and catnap. Luckily I get most of the afternoon off because of the heat./Speaking of the heat--July was terrific!!! Once for a whole week the maximum outside temperature was never below 125. If I remember correctly the extreme (outside) maximum for that week was over 154 (125 in the shade) on a Sunday afternoon. The inside of my room was always around 110 to 124 during those afternoons (Temp at night 90-100). Any exertion such as lying down and resting cause sweat to pour out in rivulets! It isn't so bad now as the temperature is only around 107-105. However the morning gets awfully cold between 3:30 to 4:00 AM. It drops to 69--enough to wake me up shivering for a blanket./I have been taking music lessons for my ukelele almost every night for almost two months. I walk 2/3 of a mile to the other end of the camp to get my lessons from a Hawaiian boy. As yet I have no "ear" and it's really a treat to watch and hear him play both the guitar and the ukelele. /During the latter part of July and up to last Monday we have had quite a thrilling finale to the first round of the Block League in softball. Our Block 322-323 team emerged the League Champions and then proceeded to take the trophy in a playoff among the four top teams of the League. The playoff victory was a no-hit no-run 1-0 thriller pitched by a former Coronado boy Akira Takeshita. The San Diego boys have proven themselves as outstanding ballplayers./On the last day of July we were at the weekly (16 mm.) movie (outdoors at night). There was a big crowd because the feature film was Glenn Miller's "Orchestra Wives." Just as the main feature came on the screen we were suddenly engulfed in a duststorm! One minute a clear night--the next minute a howling wind that carried so much dust that the stars above were blotted out. Even the street lights were dimmed by the dust. We hadn't seen dust like that since January./Our next big storm was on August 16. It was a veritable cloudburst. Raindrops were about the size of jumbo size peas. In the short half-hour downpour, which was accompanied by a fierce north wind that threatened to blow off the barrack roofs, fell all the rain of Poston's rainy season. Our block was flooded with water over six inches deep on our corner (Barracks 12-13-14 and messhall). The storm raised havoc with our uncompleted school buildings made of adobe. Three of the school buildings had their roofs blown off. The reason for that was that the windows had not been put in so the wind just came in on the open side and pushed upward to lift off the roof. You see, the whole north side of the school building is made up of windows from the roof to average window sill height. [illustration of school building] That's about how they look. You have to see them though to really appreciate what the evacuee laborers have done with adobe to build a modernistic school building./The units that already had the windows withstood the full force of the wind and rain. 500 baby chicks were killed by the storm and more to die was the report of the poultry department. The community activitie's outdoor stage in the process of construction was shorn of it's adobe walls by the fierce wind and rain./Gosh after a "dead" summer it surely gave us something to talk about. The huge forks of lightning were beautiful and the rolling thunder terrifying--nature in the raw. I really liked it./Well, this makes one year that I've been in Poston.--almost a year too much. it is hard to believe that a year could pass so quickly. The only part that dragged was the waiting for Army induction which for me never came, otherwise the days passed swiftly./Yaeko just came back from Santa Fe, N.M. where she had been visiting dad. She says that he looks fine--well-tanned. He has had his re-hearing and will know in about two or three weeks. He again sends his thanks for your affidavit. /Please tell your mother that I am sorry I did not acknowledge her thanks. This is the first letter I've written since June what with work, heat, music lessons, and softball (rooting and also working out with the boys for exercise) taking up most of my time when I'm not sleeping (6 1/2 hours per day during June and July when I was working alone at the barber shop.)/This is about all. I'll try to write oftener./Sincerely/Ted/PS (OVER)/P.S. Enclosed $2. Would you be able to get me sheet music (voice & piano guitar chords) for:/Stardust/and/or Moonlight Serenade/and/or Anniversary Waltz/and/or Tuxedo Junction/If none of them is available any new number on the Hit Parade will do. T.H.;1 letter and envelope from Tetsuzo (Ted) Hirasaki to Clara Breed.