<Begin Segment 47>

AI: But, so anyway, in Jerome, I was, I already asked you about the condition in Santa Anita and you explained how bad it was there. What about the conditions in Jerome? What was that like?

RM: Well, since this is a brand-new barrack, so better than a horse stall. Course that's all only did, I never sleep in the barracks there. So you know anything but here, well, I mean the smell is horse manure and horse urinating and that made me mad. Any other place I may not... but not only me, other people, too. Then went to Jerome, then brand-new quarters; and of course bachelors, so no women there, but then they know we could make noise or do, talk about it and I have some Isseis in there, bachelors, and Kibeis and Niseis and all mixed and I understand both in English and Japanese so sometime they say, "What did he say?" Then I explained to him in Japanese, and I'm more or less go-between, interpreter.

AI: So you could explain to both?

RM: Explain what, yeah. Then some Nihongo say, "What did this guy say?" Then I could explain in English. So if I say that look like I'm bragging, but I mean --

AI: No, but --

RM: That's what I was. And...

AI: And there, there weren't that many people who were so fluent in both languages. So then, I think it was that... I was asking you earlier about, that some people in camp in, not just Jerome, but in the camps at this time might have thought or suspected that the Nisei who had lived in Japan might be loyal to Japan's government. Did you sense that in Jerome? Did you think that some of the Kibei were being suspected?

RM: Not, well, little bit in Jerome. But the one I hear is other camps like Manzanar, worst one was at Tule Lake because that's why those are people being sent, then more this antagonist --

AI: But not so much in Jerome?

RM: Not in Jerome as far as I know. I didn't stay long enough.

AI: Right.

RM: Because after that the things getting bad so getting the Japanese side so probably --

AI: I had a question: because your Japanese was so fluent, do you think anyone suspected you of being loyal to Japan because your Japanese was so good and you --

RM: Well, some people might think so...

AI: But they didn't --

RM: But to me, from the beginning, that's why my motivation is... first I didn't think about serving the army or anything, but any way get out. So even join the army, might get killed but still gonna get out of the camp.

<End Segment 47> - Copyright © 2003 Densho. All Rights Reserved.