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TI: And as groups came in, were you curious about them? Or what did you do, now that you're at Manzanar, what do you do during the days, these early days? What do you do?

TK: I don't remember. I don't have any, I don't have that much recollection of what we did.

TI: How about things like going and watching people, the workers building the barracks or building other things and you kind of walk around the different parts of the camp?

TK: No, I don't remember what I... what they tell me later, but I don't think you want to hear that here.

TI: How about, so Bainbridge Island was the only community from Washington state that went to Manzanar.

TK: Right.

TI: The rest of them were primarily from California?

TK: Correct.

TI: From places like Los Angeles. And when you started meeting Japanese from different parts of the country, how was that? I mean, what did you, what did you experience or see when you met the California Japanese?

TK: At my age I don't think I thought they were that much different.

TI: So they seemed pretty much the same?

TK: Pretty much the same, yeah.

TI: And so did you start getting to know some boys your age that you would start playing around with, or would you stay with your brothers? I was trying to figure out what you would do?

TK: I think that we were, I stuck mostly with the Bainbridge group. And I don't think I left the block very often.

TI: Now did the adults, the Bainbridge Island adults, like your parents or other adults, ever talk about the Californians in terms of, like, "Ted, be careful," or, "Maybe you should stay on the block," or, "Don't play with the boys from Los Angeles," or was there any of that kind of talk?

TK: I don't think so. I don't remember if there was any like that.

TI: So when, eventually, when school got started, it sounds like then you would mix more, I guess, with the other groups? Is that when that happened?

TK: I think so, but again, I don't, I'm not, we got there in March and if my memory works me right I think that some of the teachers from Bainbridge sent down a lesson plan for us to complete, and I think that's how we finished our grade in '42.

TI: Interesting. So it's like the Bainbridge Islanders had their own kind of little mini school then, that you had your lessons come down and you guys could...

TK: I think so, yeah. Right

TI: And would just do it, like in the mess hall?

TK: I think something like that, yeah.

TI: Something like that, but you would do that. So it sounds like the Bainbridge Islanders had a little more structure than maybe the other parts.

TK: I think so, yeah.

TI: 'Cause I think, yeah, I haven't heard that before. A lot of times you hear that they really didn't start school 'til the fall because the spring and summer was kind of in turmoil.

TK: It was in turmoil, yeah. But I still think the, even the instructors and everything on Bainbridge were a little bit more understanding than in other parts of the...

TI: So you finished your schooling for, so what grade were you in? You were about fifth grade or sixth grade?

TK: What is... sixth or seventh I think.

TI: So you had to do homework and school work to finish all that.

TK: Yeah, I think so. Yeah.

TI: Do you recall when you started school at Manzanar, what was that like then? 'Cause here you had kind of a more structured, you had lesson plans and you could do that, was that the same when you started the Manzanar school?

TK: I don't, as far as Manzanar School, I don't remember. I think it started in September, but I don't recall.

TI: How about things like the, there was a disturbance at Manzanar, people have called it the "Manzanar Riot."

TK: Right.

TI: Do you remember that, when that happened?

TK: I remember when it happened, but we were only about two blocks away from where it, most of the action took place. But my father told me, "Don't go down there and stay away," so I think I was able to hear the gunshots, but that's about all I remember.

TI: And what did you think when you heard gunshots and all this was going on?

TK: It was just some of the California people uprising, and I didn't know anything else about it.

TI: Now, after the shots, did you see people running away from that area?

TK: No.

TI: Okay.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.