<Begin Segment 24>

TI: I want to get you back to camp during the war. When you were sixteen you, you took a short leave from camp. Can you tell me about that?

HU: Yeah, this was toward, this was in June, so June, July, August, a couple months before the war ended and by that time the ban on the West Coast had lifted and so people could go back to their homes. And we were sixteen, there were five of us who were working on this roofing crew in camp. We were putting new roof on the barracks, and the funny thing about that is we were reroofing Block 16, which was elementary school, and there was nobody, no students there. Then we reroofed that barrack and then, then after that in September the school never started in Manzanar, so that, those buildings that we reroofed was never used. It was torn down after, after it was closed down. Well anyway, we were on the roofing crew and one day the warehouse burned down where they kept the tarpaper, so the following day we went to clean up and then after that we were out a job, so we figured why don't we go outside and made big money? In those, in those days all the older guys were out, going out short term leave, they had relocated, so we tried, anyway. We were sixteen, but we tried and they said, "You're only sixteen. You can't go." And we kept bugging the guy and he says, "Well, get an okay from your parents saying you can go," so that's what we did. We got an okay and we were just about the only sixteen year olds that left camp for one month leave without our parents, I think. So we, we went on the bus to Mohave and at Mohave we boarded a train to go to Stockton, and this was a Pullman and they didn't want us to sit with the passengers so we were put into this lounge next to the toilet. They have toilet and they have this sort of a bench like place, so we were put in there and we went, stayed in that until we got, we reached Stockton, but when you're kids, we were able to talk and, I mean, we enjoyed it. It never occurred to us that they didn't, because we're Japanese we weren't able to join the other passengers, but in a way we were naive because in camp there was no discrimination and we weren't exposed to that type of thing where we would be aware of it. If you're aware of it you, you could tell right away that you're not wanted. So anyway, we went to Stockton and my friends, my friend had a German friend, neighbor, and then we went to his place, but then by the time we got to his place it was dark and he had a, a worker's shed and he had two single bunks with mattress, so we went in there and there were four of us by then and we sort of bunked together, two each. And we were so tired that we just, we're out, and then when we woke up, we looked up and jeez, there's a harness, they still had this harness, horse harness and things, and there was black thing with red hour glass on the belly. I thought, oh wow. And we looked down, it's dirt floor. I mean, it was kind of scary.

TI: So these are poisonous spiders?

HU: Right, yeah. And then we went out for a drink and they had, he had this hand pump and right next to the hand pump is the outhouse, and we just couldn't have the, we just didn't have the courage to drink it out of the well (...). It was after the harvest season, so there was no job. (...) German (friend's) name was Joe and he was, he was sorta looking for some jobs for us and he took us into town, Stockton. When we went out (of Manzanar), we didn't bring much money, just a few dollars 'cause we figured we're gonna have a job there, so... so anyway, so we went back to Joe's place and we stayed there for forty-eight hours without food or water, then finally we collected all the money that we got and which came to about sixty-seven or sixty-seven cents and went to this country (...) market, like AM/PM store, like the thing we have now, and we bought a jar of mustard, a liter (...) of Royal Crown Cola and bread, loaf of bread. And on the way back we went to a cemetery and in the cemetery was an apricot tree loaded with apricots (since) nobody's gonna eat a fruit that's growing in a cemetery. So anyway, we got all we can carry, And on the way back, it was after onion picking season so there were rotten onions, but we picked some not too bad ones. So we went back and then we made onion and mustard sandwich, and that was the most delicious meal that we ever had.

So then finally we got a job at Mandeville Island, and that was originally swamp land that converted to agricultural. They put levies and converted to agriculture, so they had this decayed reed, real tiny, sort of microscopic thing that when (they) make contact with the skin (the) itching (was) unbearable. And anyway, fortunately they, they put me into the shed as a swamper hauling out potato sacks and things. So anyway, that was quite an experience, and on the way back we decided to stop at Los Angeles and when we got off the station we went to the taxi driver and say hey, we want to go to such and such a place and then they, they just ignored us, ignored us and says, "Why don't you guys walk?" and so anyway, we had this suitcase and we're lugging the suitcase and we went to the hotel, and then we stayed there and about three o'clock in the morning we start scratching, everybody starts scratching. And then one guy flipped the lights on and what do you know? We saw these black things on our skin and, bed bugs, and bed bugs, they bite you in a line like that and I think it was one of those things that, it's worse than ants, maybe even worse than the bees because it goes up in a line like that. And then, anyway, we went back to Manzanar. Once I got to Manzanar, I mean, Manzanar was just paradise. You had your food, the shelter, I mean, nice shower, nice clean bed. That's, that's the kinda experience where I appreciated Manzanar after going through that outside (experience).

TI: That's a good, that's a good story.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.