Horse stalls have haunted the memories of evacuees and their historians. Recollection after recollection has chronicled the indignity of living in horse stalls at assembly centers at racetracks or state and county fairgrounds. Housing certainly was inadequate to begin with, but barracks quickly became standard. There is overwhelming photographic and anecdotal evidence that most Nikkei never set foot in a horse stall. Initially, quarters were either too dusty or too hot or too cold or too windy, but they soon improved. A near universal complaint about both assembly and relocation centers was the lack of privacy. Aside from gender, no one had much privacy in 1940s public restrooms or showers. Certainly servicemen did not, so for a time, the residents had to improvise privacy. Still, the government certainly could not be blamed for not having adequate accommodations for 112,000 people when the Imperial Japanese suddenly made them suspect. Several historians have likened the centers to prisons, but the fact is that they were built like standard American army posts or even instant cities.