<Begin Segment 13>

TI: So when you go into the Heart Mountain camp, tell me what that was like.

HN: Oh, it was this stark environment, and when we moved in some of the, part of the barracks were not completed yet. And it was still later part of summer, so we could take it. So they got all the carpentry people doing some carpentry. They put everything up. And putting everything up is just putting tarpaper over the wood and then nailing down, and that's what they did in completing that project.

TI: And so did you help them do some of that?

HN: No, I didn't. I, my friend got a job as a... distributing the grocery to each mess hall, so he got me on the job, too, and I was on the truck and distributing -- this was before the school started -- distributing food to each different mess hall.

TI: Now was this a paying job for you?

HN: Yeah, it was. No, was it? Yeah, it was, yeah.

TI: Good. And how about your older brother, what was he doing?

HN: I don't completely remember what he was doing, but he was taking it real seriously about this incarceration. That's because he was three years older than I was, and he must have understood much better than I did, you know.

TI: So when you say taking it very seriously, so he was more upset about it?

HN: Upset, yeah.

TI: Okay, so you mentioned you weren't really quite sure what your brother was doing, you know, one of the things that happened in the camps was the family structure changed. Because, probably at Terminal Island you were closer as a family, eating together, but now Heart Mountain, things changed in terms of eating patterns, where people ate, when they ate. So can you talk a little bit about that, in terms of how, what happened with your family?

HN: Well, we were still close-knitted. When I start working for these guys, by the time we finished distributing the food... when did that happen? It was during the day, so our family were still having meal together in the morning and at night, supper.

TI: Oh, so that's interesting, so who was it, was it your mother that really wanted everyone to eat together?

HN: Oh, yes, yes. Right.

TI: Okay, so three boys and her always ate together.

HN: And my father. He was back by then.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.