<Begin Segment 26>

TI: In Bismarck, I'm guessing you had lots of time, so what would you use your time? What would you do?

HN: We... they had Japanese language course. They had these assistant professors from Cal Tech teaching us science and math. And some, a few from, who were educated in Japan, the commercial university, they were teaching us the soroban, the abacus, how to mentally calculate. And we were so good at that, all these big numbers, we could solve it like that. And we were spending our time doing those things.

TI: And earlier you mentioned the German prisoners there. Did you have any interactions with the Germans?

HN: Oh yeah, they were very fun, friendly people. They were there before we were, and they knew the ins and outs, what to do, what not to do, you know, and how to take best advantage of the government facility and so forth. They used to take us in, you know, "Don't do that, do this." And they, since they were there they used to operate the canteen and the dispensary and there were some German doctors in the hospital, so we intermingled with them. But these Germans were much older than we were, not eighteen, no. They were twenty-five, over twenty-five, so they didn't intermingle, I heard later, with the older Nisei. Like I didn't know they had the bar for the adult in Bismarck. They used to, you could go over there and have drinks and so forth, and they have all these different pictures and so forth. It was off-limits to anybody who was underage, which meant anybody who was under twenty-one. [Laughs]

TI: Oh, so you couldn't go there?

HN: Yeah, I couldn't go there.

TI: But this was actually operated by who?

HN: The Germans. German internee. When I went this time they were talking about it. "Is that what happens?"

TI: So you didn't get to do that. But you said earlier, so the Germans didn't interact with the Isseis, or not as much?

HN: Not as much.

TI: But more with the Nisei, so when the new group came there's more interaction.

HN: With Nisei, yeah.

TI: How about --

HN: Well, Issei, before we were there they weren't there. By the time we got there they were sent to other places.

TI: Like to Santa Fe or other places. How about, did the Niseis have much interaction with the soldiers, the guards?

HN: No. No, I didn't see any. They were distant. They were on the tower, guard tower, so those are the only times we saw 'em. Outside the fence, patrolling. They never came in. The only people that were in was the immigration patrol. They were not soldiers. Civilian guards.

<End Segment 26> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.