<Begin Segment 18>

TI: You mentioned going to Tule Lake towards the end of 1943, and there was a period in Tule Lake from November 1943 to, like, February 1944, so several months, when Tule Lake was under martial law. Do you remember that?

HN: Yeah, I remember that.

TI: So what was that like to be under martial law? What was that, what did that mean to you and the others?

HN: Well, we were restricted. I think we were restricted from going too far out of our area to another part of the camp, so there were a lot of restrictions there. Restriction of movements, you know.

TI: And were things like, was there curfews also?

HN: Yeah, there were curfews, yeah. As far as I can remember. My memory may not be that accurate, but the impression at the time.

TI: And what, why did they put Tule Lake under martial law?

HN: Because there were riots. I learned later on, reading the book, that there were riots before, before the segregation. That's the reason why they have more troops in there. And after we got in there were, there were incident where the camp, the Caucasian workers, you know, were trying to smuggle some food out of the warehouse to be sold at the black market. That was the information I was given. And this is where the riots started, where some of the internees tried to stop that, those trucks from getting out.

TI: During the, when this was happening, how much of this did you know when you were at Tule Lake?

HN: I didn't know too much except, you know, the food, the Caucasian workers were trying to take some food out of the camp, and that was about the extent of the information I remember.

TI: Okay, so martial law, but in terms of day-to-day activities, how did it change for you, being at Tule Lake versus Heart Mountain, say? Were there any changes in your routine?

HN: Yeah. In Tule Lake they had the Japanese language school, and I used to go there.

TI: So at Heart Mountain there was no Japanese language school.

HN: No, no, there weren't any, as far as I know.

TI: And tell me about the Japanese language school. Who taught it and who was there?

HN: The class I went to, I remember the teacher was from Hawaii. It was a Kibei, I guess, Nisei, and... that's about everything I remember.

TI: Now, in addition to the language, did they also talk about going back to Japan and anything in terms of the customs?

HN: Not at the school. Not that much except only the language part of it.

TI: Now did Japanese school take the place of American school, or English school?

HN: No.

TI: So you went to both.

HN: Yeah, we had both.

TI: Any other activities that were different at Tule Lake than Heart Mountain?

HN: No, not that I remember.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.