<Begin Segment 32>

AH: So you continued to go out to different places like Burley, Idaho, and to do work...

JA: Just to Burley, not to anywhere...

AH: Nowhere else.

JA: Yes, but one of the things that I did was become a ditch rider. In other words, you measure at certain stations, how much water is passing that station by running a equipment called a (...) hydrometer. Okay. And what you do, you take it two feet from the top, two feet from the bottom, and then you record the depth. So when you finish, you will have a total area of that section, and by knowing what the velocity is you know the total volume of water passing. So you go to the next station and if there's no leaks, there should be same amount of water. But if there's a drop, then you have to go and station that and then go in after the canal is turned off and do some fixing.

AH: So, actually the job that you had was kind of challenging and fulfilling for you during that time.

JA: Yes, right.

AH: Did you ever develop a profile -- like a lot of people did at other camps including Minidoka -- did you ever develop a profile before the draft issue in 1944 of being a quote, unquote "troublemaker"?

JA: That I don't know, that I don't know.

AH: At Puyallup, you had.

JA: Yes, there in Puyallup I went against whoever that was trying to run the camp. And I went ahead and did what I felt was good for camp -- for the people, not for who was running. Okay. And there was this Sakamoto, Arai, then you had the cannery union group, and they're all trying to outdo each other. But to me, I want the answer now, I don't want them to think about, think about, think about. Hey, I'm gonna do it, and I'm a doer. I'm not a person who thinks and just dwell on it. So I just go ahead and say hey, this is the best way. Go to the chef, chef says fine, okay, I'm going to do it regardless what the camp, whoever's trying to run the camp. And to me, I thought that had something to do with my being put on the stop.

AH: But you didn't feel obliged to that kind of thing at Minidoka very much. I mean, this one attempt that you were talking about, the opening underneath the barracks and stuff...

JA: Well that, and then try to... see, we had all the toilets and whatnot, equipment, sitting out there in the desert. Well heck, jiminy, we could do a lot of plumbing. And there were many people, very good at doing things like that. So I said, "Hey, we'll do it. We'll put in the toilet, we'll do the carpentry work, we'll do this, we'll do that." And the, Stafford says no, we can't because we have contract, to whoever. So what do we do? We go out there and sit in the outhouse 20 below zero. I'm not feeling good about that. I don't think anybody, yeah.

<End Segment 32> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.