Inside a WWII Incarceration Barracks Replica at the California Museum | Sacramento, CA

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]Hello, my name is Steve Sasaki, and I'm a docent here at the California Museum.

[00:00:03][music] One of my favorites the recreation of one of the barracks in Poston, Arizona for the uprooted [music] in American story exhibit. It depicts what were the living environments when people were sent off [music] to camp.

[00:00:15]So, the plywood walls, the tarpaper are very real. The bunks that they show here with the blankets, that's what people lived with. The average temperature in Poston was 130° during the summertime.

[00:00:27]Some of the people here were also from San Francisco. So, [music] moving from San Francisco to then living in a barracks where the average temperature is 130° [music] was quite a change and pretty miserable for a lot of people.

[00:00:41]I'm a docent on duty, which means a couple of times a month I'm usually here to be able to answer questions for people [music] and to lead tours. The best way to find out when I'm here is to go to the California Museum website, look under docent on duty, and it'll have the dates and times that I'll be available.