<Begin Segment 25>

MN: So when you got to Crystal City, was your father already there?

MT: Yes. He was there before us. Of course, he was closer than us.

MN: What was your first impression of Crystal City?

MT: What?

MN: What was your first impression of Crystal City?

MT: It was nice 'cause of the way it looked, but then it was not, the building itself was only a v-hut, what they call an army v-hut. It's a plywood, about eight by eight or ten by ten, they gave us two of those, one for my father and mother and one for my brother and me. So I didn't like that part. I wished they had given us one of the barracks. My wife, she was in the barracks, better place. They had regular toilets like that, but us, we had to go outside and go to another building, the bathrooms and showers. Plus, we were there late, so actually, we couldn't complain. But at least we were with my father.

MN: So how would you compare your living condition to, at Crystal City to Poston?

MT: Oh, it was a hundred times better at Crystal City. Because over there, my mother would go to the market and buy what kind of food she wanted, cook it, and we eat together. And in Poston, it's just, truck brings it, dump it off, and you eat whatever the cook feel like cooking, or the way he feel like cooking. That's the difference. I thought over there was a lot better. We even had a good swimming pool there.

MN: Where did your mother get the money to buy food?

MT: Oh, they gave us allotment. They have so many people, so you get so much money. It's not cash cash, it's a token.

MN: So do they serve, I mean, did they sell Japanese food like rice?

MT: Oh, yeah, because there was a lot of Japanese food. Most of the Japanese there, we had a, well, a few thousand Germans and Italians. But all the rest of it was Japanese.

MN: Did you have any interaction with the Germans and the Italians?

MT: Oh, we played ball and things, yeah. As a matter of fact, when we first got into camp, we didn't have any kitchen set up, so we had to go this barrack, and there was a German, Japanese, they kept an allotment of food and you eat together. But then after a while, then you got your own place and you cooked yourself. But until then, there was Germans together and Japanese together. So this German guy that used to bake, they must have had a bakery or something, used to make bread. So he'd make some bread, oh, boy, that sure smells good, and we'd go over and eat bread. And it's supposed to be he was baking it for the Germans, but, "Oh, yeah, go ahead, help yourself." Because he always had extra food. Had a lot of food there. As a matter of fact, they even had a barber shop, and her father used to work over there collecting money for the barber shop, and you have to pay so much, twenty-five cents or something like that. But you have Japanese, just Japanese cutting hair for Japanese, the Germans had their own. Everything is, the way it was set up was real nice.

MN: How were you able to communicate with the Germans?

MT: English. They spoke English. The younger ones were born here in America, but their father got taken in, so they were like us, going into camp. And then a lot of 'em got sent to Germany with the exchange.

MN: Now, the v-hut that you lived in, how cramped was it inside?

MT: How close?

MN: How big was the room that you lived in?

MT: That thing was only about, I would say about eight by eight or ten by ten. Small, it's a square. And you get two of those, so they were... where my brother and I lived, we're furthest away, and my father and mother lived, they built a lean-to on the outside so she can cook, and they gave us a stove like that that we'd use to cook there.

MN: And then the other people living around your area, where were they from?

MT: Well, we were, the first eight was of America, and then they started bringing in people from Peru and other places. Those guys are the ones that had a hard time, 'cause the only thing they come with was just a suitcase there. Yeah, you feel sorry for them. That's the way it was. We got to know these Peruvians real well, 'cause the rest of the camp, they were there before us. They were more or less, what you say, shunned us, they stayed away from us. We were in the v-hut, only thing we did was take up some of their baseball fields, softball field where they used to play, and then they built that v-huts like that. They didn't like us too well. But the Peruvians, they came like us, too, they were in our area. We really got along with them real well. Even when we got out of camp, we used to meet 'em over there in L.A. Got along with them real well.

MN: These are the Japanese Peruvians.

MT: Uh-huh. They're all Japanese, but they spoke Spanish and Japanese.

MN: So how did you communicate with them?

MT: Oh, Japanese. They learned English fast. You had to, they're in America now. Everything was in English.

MN: Did you play any sports at Crystal City?

MT: Sports, yeah. We played softball, yeah. Basketball.

MN: So your teammates were the Peruvians? Were you on the same team as the Peruvians?

MT: Oh, yes. Sure, if they want to play, some of them sort of stayed away from everybody else, but still, most of them, they came and played with us. But the rest of the camp left us alone, too. We're the ones that came in last, so you get pushed aside. But we still had a lot of fun.

<End Segment 25> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.