<Begin Segment 16>

AI: And you mentioned that you had a job then, in the mess hall?

LK: I helped in the mess hall, yes.

AI: And what about your parents, did they have work?

LK: I can't quite remember what my dad did. I think he did some kind of manual labor, volunteered for that. And then my mother, she sewed a lot, so she landed a job as seamstress in the hospital.

AI: And then what about your brothers and sisters?

LK: My sister was not in very good health at that time, so I don't think she worked and I don't know what my brother did. I don't really even remember.

AI: So for you, what would a typical day be like?

LK: Oh, helping in the, helping clear up in the, that mess hall and then serving if necessary. Most people came up and got their own food and then, you know, and in between you'd get to fool around, play around with your friends. But backing up, in Puyallup, I volunteered to be, bring the trays of food to sick, sick people. So we were called tray girls. And we'd -- some people couldn't come to the mess halls.

AI: So if someone was ill and back in their room, really, they really needed help.

LK: Yes, so that was our, our group.

AI: Because it sounds like there was quite a distance for some people having to walk...

LK: Yes.

AI: ...between their room and out wherever the mess hall was.

LK: Especially in Puyallup. Everybody had to go to one location for their food. In Minidoka by then they had set up a block where we -- each block had a mess hall and then a laundry area and a recreation room. So by then that was a little bit better, you know.

AI: Right. When you say "block," about what size was that? Was that like about a city block or...

LK: No, they had about, oh maybe twelve barracks to a block, I think, I can't quite remember.

AI: So very large.

LK: Yeah, it was pretty big. So the mess hall and the laundry facilities were in the middle and then the barracks would be like here.

AI: Lined up.

LK: Uh-huh. I think there was six in a row.

AI: On each side.

LK: And then we had I think altogether the area was forty-two blocks in the whole camp. That was quite a few people.

AI: What block number were you in?

LK: Block 6. When we first went I was in Block 17 and then when my mother got a job at the hospital, the hospital was down in that area so they let us get, go into Block 6. Because we had to walk to wherever we worked.

AI: Right. So actually it was like being in a city, really, a small town.

LK: Yes. I think so.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.