<Begin Segment 16>

TI: When you were at Tule Lake, did you have a job?

MT: Yes, I worked for the block manager.

TI: And what did that mean?

MT: Kind of office work, you know, I mean, did whatever, little bit of typing.

TI: And what would a block manager do?

MT: Well, he'd more or less oversee any problems within the block, actually.

TI: And then when you would do typing or reports or office work, what kind of forms or information would you handle?

MT: I don't know what they had too much in the way of forms, if it was just a message that he wanted to get out or correspond with somebody, a department or whatever. There wasn't a whole lot of work as far as that goes.

TI: And so what would you spend most of your time doing then?

MT: Probably talking. [Laughs]

TI: Now were you there when they did like the "loyalty questionnaire" at Tule Lake?

MT: Yes, I was.

TI: And so describe that process. Did the block manager have to do different things and you helped him with that? Describe the whole process.

MT: You know, I'm sorry, I don't really remember too clearly anything that stands out in my mind right now. I know they had meetings within the block to tell people what to expect, and then you were given the forms.

TI: And during those meetings when they explained what was going on, what were those meetings like? Was it like a camp administrator just talking, or was there discussion questions?

MT: Well, I think if it were a block meeting, it'd be in the mess hall with the block manager addressing the group.

TI: And were there lots of questions?

MT: Not a whole lot. I think it became more kind of an individual thing within the families, what they decide to do about it.

TI: And what did your family do when it came to the "loyalty questionnaire"?

MT: Well, there was no problem within my family, we all agreed it was "yes."

TI: I think... and I'm not sure, at some point I know your older brothers left camp to go do work outside. Was it after the "loyalty questionnaire" or before? Do remember about when that happened?

MT: It was after.

TI: Okay. The thing about the camps, Tule Lake and the other ones, brings Japanese Americans from different parts of the country, bring 'em together. Here you grew up in kind of a farming community in South Park, and now at Tule Lake you're with people from different parts of the country, I think in particular California, I think a lot from Sacramento area. Could you, were there differences between the Japanese from like the rural areas around Seattle and maybe the Japanese from like a Sacramento? Were there differences that you saw in terms of how they did things?

MT: You know, right offhand I can't think of anything. I think there were differences, but I can't really put my finger on anything to bring it out.

TI: Like in the Alaska area, were they all from more the Pacific Northwest?

MT: Yes.

TI: I wonder why they... yeah, that's so funny they called it Alaska. Before we move on from Tule Lake, any other memories or things that you recall about Tule Lake? Maybe with your parents, did anything happen with your parents or your siblings, do you recall?

MT: No. We pretty much tried to do what we can to keep ourselves busy. And my sister worked in the hospital. She went on to a medical career.

TI: And which sister worked in the hospital?

MT: Well, my oldest sister, yes.

TI: Okay. How about at Tule Lake, I asked earlier about Pinedale, the social scene. How about Tule Lake? There must have been more dances and things like that.

MT: Yes, yes, there was more organized entertainment and that type of thing, more activities.

TI: Now, did you date when you were at Tule Lake?

MT: [Laughs]

TI: I'm going to put you on the spot there.

MT: Not too much, but some. [Laughs]

TI: And so what was that like? How would you date at Tule Lake? What would a typical date be?

MT: Well, you could have been, there wasn't too much choice actually because you're within the limited space. But if you, sometimes we would go to a dance if there was one that we hear of. But it was pretty limited.

TI: But would the boy come to, like your room, the barrack, and pick you up and go, or would you just meet at the dance or how would that work?

MT: Generally he would come pick and pick me up.

TI: So it was really a date then.

MT: Sort of. [Laughs] But you just feel confined, there isn't much you can do.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2016 Densho. All Rights Reserved.