Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Taneyuki Dan Harada Interview
Narrator: Taneyuki Dan Harada
Interviewer: Martha Nakagawa
Location: San Jose, California
Date: November 30, 2010
Densho ID: denshovh-htaneyuki-01-0019

<Begin Segment 19>

MN: How was your life compared, how was your life at Leupp compared to life at Topaz?

TH: Oh, 'cause Topaz I was with my family in our own room. But Leupp, we were all together, sleeping together. Of course, the weather was much hotter than Topaz. There was one time close to 114 degree.

MN: So how do you keep cool in that kind of weather?

TH: Building, I think because of the way it was built, thick, strong wall, it wasn't that bad inside. But there was a court inside the huge building, and people used to, some people used to play basketball.

MN: Did you have any interaction with the local Navajos?

TH: No, never.

MN: What about workers at Leupp? Were they Navajos?

TH: Gee, I never saw them. Some of us were working, I understand, in the kitchen. And sometimes several of us were called out to go outside the fence and work in the garden with all the people who were employed or maybe soldiers. And then, of course, we always had soldiers behind us with guns.

MN: Did you see any women at Leupp?

TH: No, I didn't see anybody.

MN: Now, Raymond Best was the director at the Moab citizen isolation center. And then when everybody was transferred to Leupp, later, Paul G. Robertson took over that position. Now, when you were at Leupp, was Raymond Best still there?

TH: Yes, I think at the beginning. I think, 'cause I heard his name, and he wasn't too popular with the inmate there. But Robertson, I understand, was very good.

MN: How would you describe Robertson's personality?

TH: Well, maybe I've seen him, but I don't remember. I never talked to him.

MN: Now, Topaz group was one of the last groups to arrive at Leupp. Were you able to mingle with the other men who were already there?

TH: Not really. Even with the Topaz group, there were only two or three people that I really talked with.

MN: And these two or three people you talked with, do you know why they were there?

TH: Same situation as me. But one of the people, his name was Wataru Nakahara, he, strangely, he was, we went to the same high school in Japan. He was one class above me, and he was very, tried to take, very protective toward me. Even after internment camp, we used to see each other. There was another person, Kinoshita, we became good friends. And even after Tule Lake, we used to see each other. But he went back to Japan after Tule Lake, but after several years he came back.

MN: Now, you talked about your friend Mr. Nakahara being protective. Did you need protection at Leupp?

TH: No, not so much, but you could say he was, well, he was kind of, he had a personality of kind of boss type. So he was really nice to me. And even after coming out of Tule Lake, through him I got a job at Simmons mattress company. At the beginning, we used to work together.

MN: So the men at Leupp, did they talk to each other, did they mingle too much, or did they just stay within their little groups?

TH: Mostly in their little group.

MN: By the camps? By the different camps?

TH: Yeah, by the camp.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.