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TI: But what were your first impressions of Tule Lake when you went there?

TU: Well, you've heard the description of the barracks. We had an end barracks, and there were my folks and three of us boys and my sister. So we have one room for the six of us. But my sister didn't live with us for long because she was in nursing school or trying to be a nurse. And so she had quarters, the nurse's quarter I guess. We didn't see much of her at Tule Lake.

TI: Oh, so did she work at the Tule Lake hospital then, right there?

TU: I imagine, I'm not sure. That's something I haven't talked to her about. It's too late now, she's gone. So we go into this unit in Block 46, and you know, the barracks were put up hastily, minimum expense. And so the outside wall was covered with tarpaper, but the inside wall, the sheetrocks were still not placed. Us boys wanted something to do, and we heard about this carpenters crew was going around the block putting in the sheetrock. And the foreman, who was a Japanese fellow, young fellow... and I wish I had his name. But he was very good, he treated us well, kids, you know. But we were kind of sincere and we worked hard and helped put up the sheetrock to get prepared for the winter weather, yeah. So that's what we did for a while. When that was done, this is still summertime, so my mother kept telling me anyway, "You got to find something to do." So, okay, my buddy and I and a couple of our other friends decided that we were going to work on the farm. Volunteered for farm work, picking potatoes and feeding the chickens, cleaning the chicken nests and so on. So we volunteered for those things. It's surprising that there was so much land outside the camp being used to raise vegetables, potatoes, corn, chicken, pigs, I don't know if they had cows. But anyway, we were driven out to the farms on the truck. We had a gay old time. And every now and then the hens would lay these soft-shelled eggs, too soft to send out or mail out, so we'd get a free egg meal. [Laughs] Boiled egg or scrambled egg or whatever was available, it would be.

TI: And would you do that out in the field someplace?

TU: Out in the field. So we're eating extra, not only the mess hall food, but we got a chance to eat some of the food out on the farm.

TI: Good. So it sounded like a good job, then, to have in the summer.

TU: Yeah, and you know, I think these people see the young kids around, trying to do some good. That they take a liking to us and give us breaks like preparing eggs for us. I didn't know eggs could be soft shelled. But anyway, those things did happen. So my experience in Tule Lake, it wasn't bad. We were too busy playing or working, keeping my mother happy. [Laughs]

TI: Well, now in the fall when school starts, tell me about school. What was school like?

TU: Yeah, school was, classrooms were barracks, you know, same as the living quarters, barracks. And they'd be divided up to three or four classrooms and we would be studying in these rooms. And I think early on there was a shortage of books, and especially like chemistry classes, there was a shortage of things to work with. Mechanic, some guys that took mechanics, they didn't have a power saw at all, it's just hand saw as I understand it. So it was crude classroom facilities, but we got by. And by the time the school year ended, things were going pretty smoothly, I thought.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.