<Begin Segment 17>

TI: And so as part of the advance crew, what kind of things were you, was the crew tasked with? What did you guys do?

MT: Oh, I really can't remember what, but it was really menial work. We weren't asked to build or anything like that. Probably getting on a truck, picking up supplies for the camp and bringing it into camp. But it was more a lark more than work or anything.

TI: So how about when the families started coming? Did you then have to help them?

MT: Yeah, uh-huh.

TI: So what kind of things would you do to help them?

MT: Oh, I think the main thing everybody did was scrounge around. When I say "scrounge," it's the wrong word. We'd go out and steal lumber and whatever we could to help build a table or a chair or whatever. And this is where the families were, as I was saying, being broken up more than ever, was father would take their ten, twelve year old and go to the lumber pile, stealing the lumber, and dad would say, "Oh, this is GI. Anything GI we can steal," and thought nothing of it. And they were at least my age, we knew who it was, but we didn't care. And for the young kids, "Dad's stealing this, Dad is saying it's GI," so when you start building the PX and things, there were several instances where the young kids broke into the PX, started saying, "But he says it's GI." And they had a hard time distinguishing between what you can steal and what you can't steal. [Laughs]

TI: And so that's interesting. So in the camp, a lot of the... so the fathers would even do things that they would never do in real life.

MT: Yeah, that's right.

TI: And so by doing so, that set this different example for, especially, you mentioned the younger boys and what they saw. And then later on, it impacted things like breaking into the PX and stuff like that. So was there, did you ever think there was an issue of, like, juvenile delinquency in camp?

MT: I don't think delinquency is really the thing. They definitely were, kids were on their own. They would be with three or four of their pals that, pals could live three blocks away. They would go over there and each lunch, even dinner sometimes. And their mothers and fathers would not know where they're at, and I think some kids, it was lucky, parents were lucky if the kids came home to sleep in their confined area. Mealtime was almost a lost thing with a lot of families. I think it was very disheartening for the parents to see that.

TI: Was there a case where some of the older boys ever felt like they had to... what's the right word, mentor or kind of help watch over the younger boys? Like I'm thinking of these boys that are, like, you know, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, that perhaps didn't really know in some cases what was right or wrong. Did you see, like some of the older Niseis just kind of stepping in and helping?

MT: Not that so much, but little after camp or Minidoka started, they did start the schools which brought the age groups together. Which was, I think, one of the best things that they did, was instead of scattering kids, they were able to bring them together and more or less teach 'em what was right and wrong, what was camp life like, what school should be like. So I think there, they were able to make the younger kids, anyway, realize that there's a social standard that they had to follow. But that was broken down to, a great deal during Puyallup and early Minidoka days.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.