<Begin Segment 5>

TI: So, Jimi, about this time, you're what, twenty-three years old?

JY: Yeah, that's, see, about '44, it's the same time I was for draft evasion was March of '44. That's why that was the middle of the jail job in July, just as the jail job was started.

TI: Is when you got your draft notice.

JY: Yeah. I was tried, '44, March, I was ordered to report for draft.

TI: Okay, so I want to ask more about that, but before we go there, so you're a young man, you're twenty-two, twenty-three.

JY: Yeah, twenty-two, yeah, twenty-three.

TI: And when you did these jobs like moving the barracks or building the jail, who did you report to?

JY: There's a hakujin guy, a farmer, he himself, Roy Campbell was my boss. And eventually when all the segregation started coming in, he got pushed aside. They closed up other camps, and then actually, the camp was operated by the Indian Affairs department. Most of the head guys were from Indian Affairs, and I think that's where they had a, it was an awakening for them, is the fact that they thought we'd be like Indians, very placid people, but we weren't. We were more educated, we were more gung ho, we're in business, lot of people had more drive. And I think in that respect, they called it "riot," that's what caused the riot. Because they were forcing the administration for certain things, and pushing, and I think they got afraid of us, and that's where the riots started, the so-called "riot" in '44.

TI: And so is that when Roy Campbell...

JY: Yeah, when Campbell was the head. In the meantime, so they brought in a lot of the Indian Affairs people, then our staff, population from about two hundred exploded to 550 staff members. And then they went in... it was during the riot time, so they brought in outside carpenters, and they converted, oh, about ten or fifteen warehouses into small apartments.

TI: Oh, just for the additional staff?

JY: Just for the staff. 'Cause they had 550 staff. Meantime, 550 staff, they were really at each others' throat, too, because people that lived in warehouses, like living in barracks, they just had a little compartment-like, and they had to go outside for toilet and everything else, just like the barracks. And meantime, they had to eat in their given mess hall, whereas the other staff had a nicer mess hall, better food and this and that. So it was, it was really dog-eat-dog among the staff.

TI: Oh, that's interesting. So the administration had their own friction, their own divisions...

JY: Oh, terrible friction, yes. Terrible friction, yeah.

TI: I had never, yeah, this is interesting. And how did you see that? How did you know that that was going on?

JY: Because I moved over there. I was released from the camp site, then they asked me to stay behind and work for WRA to close the camps down.

TI: Oh, so this is later on.

JY: Later on. They know the camp's going to be closed March, the given day was March, the camp's going to be closed. So they had to have somebody there to help close the camp down. So...

TI: Okay, so I'm going to come back to that, because I want to talk about the closing of the camps. But I wanted to go back in terms of your supervision. So when, when they gave you a job like moving the barracks for the jail, how much independence did they give you? Was it pretty much, "Jimi, you go figure it out"? or were they constantly saying, "Do it this way, do it that way"?

JY: Yeah, they gave me pretty much independence. They issued me a car, I was the only evacuee that had a personal car. Every day it would change, though, because naturally the hakujin guys would get the better car. Some days I have a pickup, some days I have a car, oh, well. I give 'em transportation. They gave me free hand for most everything, even like when I had to make the dust control system, had to bring water into the camp there. I had to get up about six o'clock in the morning, turn the pumps on, get the water into the camp, and then six o'clock at night I had to turn the pumps off because the water stopped coming. I mean, I had a lot of extra work to do, so that's why I was not in the camp barrack itself that long. I'd be the first one to eat breakfast, then I'd be the last one to eat dinner when I'd get home. So, I don't know, it was just, it was an everyday job. Six days a week I was working, pushing it along.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.