<Begin Segment 5>

MN: So what do you remember of the train ride from Santa Anita to Rohwer?

TN: I don't remember that at all. I don't remember arriving in Rohwer either.

MN: Okay, so you arrived in Rohwer, you settled down. What did your father do in camp?

TN: First he was a lumberjack until one day he kind of chopped his foot with an axe, got injured, laid up for a while. But he didn't chop off any toes or anything, so he was okay. But after that he didn't have to do lumberjacking anymore, and eventually he became a block manager.

MN: So what were some of the responsibilities your father had a block manager?

TN: Getting supplies for the block. It was Block 3. I think our address was 3-8-A.

MN: So you mentioned that he had to go get supplies.

TN: Yeah. I don't know when, maybe it was later on. Maybe not the first year, but after the government loosened up a little bit, but he got to go outside to get supplies. Like I think he took me along, maybe one of my brothers, too, to McGehee, the metropolis of McGehee. I don't know what the population was.

MN: So what was McGehee like?

TN: I don't know, but there was a Chinese store. That's where we went. My father went to patronize fellow Asians, I guess.

MN: Now you were kind of sharing the history of the Chinese in Mississippi. Can you share with us, like, why were there Chinese in Mississippi and actually in Arkansas?

TN: I think the Chinese in Arkansas, they might have come from Mississippi. From what I hear, Chinese were recruited to Mississippi to work in the plantations, maybe to replace the former slaves. There were a lot of 'em in Greenville, Mississippi. And one of the Chinese that grew up there was the famous reporter Sam Chu Lin. One of my friends introduced me to my wife, Pat. Anyway, we saw Chinese in other towns, too. Oh, by the way, friend's name is Ray Chow. We saw a Chinese store in Pine Bluff, and also Dumas, Arkansas.

MN: You know, when you saw these Chinese Americans in these areas, did you wonder why they weren't in camp?

TN: Well, because they weren't Japanese. It was Japanese that were in camps.

MN: So you know, when your father took you out to camp, did you also see the whites-only, colored-only sections?

TN: I didn't know anything about it at the time, but I did... well, my father pointed out that there were black people, African Americans, they were all sitting around, I don't know what they were doing. That's the first time I was aware of the black race, African American race.

MN: So when you went on these trips, was it just you and your father or did like an MP go out with you folks?

TN: I don't remember any MP, and I don't remember how many times we went, either.

MN: Do you remember what your father usually bought on these trips?

TN: No, probably toilet paper and stuff like that, I don't know.

MN: Did he give you, like, treat you with candy or treats on the trips?

TN: Probably, but I don't remember.

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