<Begin Segment 6>

SY: Okay, so you're, we've gotten as far as Jerome now. You're, you've gotten on a train, now you're in Jerome, and any memories of that particular camp?

GN: Sure. Some sad things. One that I really remember is there was this young couple who had a baby girl, I guess, that was able to walk, had -- and because you had a community bath, apparently they had a, one of those bathtubs made out of metal that they put hot water, you would make hot water on top of the stove and they had filled it up with hot water, but it was, I guess it wasn't cool enough for anyone to go in, and the child stepped in there and she passed away. But it was, and I went to that funeral, but it was a real sad sight that I was seeing, where the father was in tears that, he felt that he was partly responsible for what had occurred because they had allowed the child to go in the tub there when they weren't watching.

SY: Wow. Now you, when you were at Jerome, then, did you start school right away? Or do you remember being in school, or was that --

GN: I sort of remember being in school. I also remember having my tonsils taken out.

SY: So you were in the hospital.

GN: In the hospital. And let's see, what else? I remember going into the forest with my father one time. Jerome was fairly open, even though they had guard towers. They had people cutting down trees for lumber, and I think my father was doing that, I remember. And he still has a book, I guess he was working as a foreman, so he had a number of people that were working for him at that time.

SY: Wow. And your mother was taking care of the two kids?

GN: Kids, yeah.

SY: So, and do you, how, do these memories come just in little pieces?

GN: It's in little pieces.

SY: And you get things refreshed when you hear stories from other people?

GN: Right.

SY: I see. And have you been back to Jerome at all?

GN: Twice. The first time was, I think it was '91 or '92, and I had joined the Jerome Reunion Committee, and Buddy Kasai and myself co-chaired the fundraising to build a monument at Jerome, and so we raised, I think, about eight thousand dollars at that time. And then some other folks had raised some money and they were able to put up a monument in Jerome. And so that is the only thing that's left in Jerome, although there was a chimney, hospital chimney that was still around. I don't think that's there anymore, but so the monument is the only one. And then, gee, I can't remember his last name, but Caucasian farmer that owns that land now, and he dedicated a portion of his land that's near the main highway for the people to put the monument there and so he was very gracious about that.

SY: And when you went back to Jerome, do you remember any of it when you went back?

GN: This was the thing that struck me, is there were a number of us who flew on a plane to get there, and of course there's a few people who had cars, and the mayor of the city of McGehee -- I think her name is Rosalie Gould, who is the mayor of that city -- had arranged it so that the, their highway patrol would allow the two buses and some of the cars to go through red lights like a convoy. That reminded me of going to Santa Anita, and so I made comments about that, that here, now, so many years later we're doing it for a different reason, but the incident kind of reminded me of going to Santa Anita.

SY: 'Cause you had that memory of that experience.

GN: Yes.

SY: And did, do you remember certain landmarks or anything in Jerome, or was it all just very vague?

GN: It, there's no, one of the things that when you go to Jerome, you won't see any trees around. I remember trees surrounding the camp. Even the photograph that I have of Jerome, you'll see trees in the background, but they made it all into farmland. Looks like all the trees are gone.

SY: And so how long totally were you in Jerome?

GN: One year.

SY: Just one year.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.