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BN: Now, what was your first impression when you arrived at Manzanar?

WS: That was strange because when we got there, we didn't know what's going to happen to us. But the people that met us were friendly, nice and friendly. But we got there late afternoon, and they gave us a room in the barrack. It was terrible; it was dirty, dusty, iron beds with a straw mattress, we had to fill bags with straw. And that was it, it was pretty, kind of lonely and strange.

BN: Do you remember what block you were in?

WS: Block 9.

BN: And do you remember who else lived in the block? I mean not specifically...

WS: Terminal Islanders.

BN: It was all Terminal Islanders?

WS: Yeah.

BN: But these were Terminal Island people from the Fish Harbor side, so they're not necessarily people you knew.

WS: Right. So they all spoke Japanese, we didn't speak any Japanese.

BN: Was there conflict, or did they give you a hard time?

WS: Oh, they gave us a hard time, because we weren't part of the group. We were able to move out to Block 29. My mother got a job in the hospital, so we had to move.

BN: How did she...

WS: That job? I don't know.

BN: No, I mean, how was she able to move to Block 29?

WS: I don't know, because she got the job, and the people who worked in the hospital, they lived in those two blocks, 29, 30, 28.

BN: I see. So Block 29, you were now surrounded by other workers, hospital workers.

WS: Right, doctors and so on.

BN: So probably a little more congenial than the Terminal Island group for you.

WS: Right.

BN: And you're, I think you had mentioned you just started junior high school that fall, so you were junior high school age.

WS: Right.

BN: I'm always interested in particular, for some reason, in the bathrooms and the mess halls. Can you tell me what you remember about the bathroom or latrine area?

WS: Oh, when we first got there, the bathrooms were, they weren't separated into stalls, they were just toilets in a line, both sides of a wall. And that's about it, the shower, open shower, we weren't used to that kind of thing.

BN: Did they put in partitions later?

WS: They did, yeah.

BN: Were the Japanese Americans the ones who put them up, or did the administration put those in?

WS: I don't know how they got them.

BN: But they did eventually add those?

WS: Yeah.

BN: What about the mess halls? Do you remember much about the food also?

WS: Well, the food wasn't so great, but it was food. And the people would line up and the kids would eat together, the parents with their friends, so it was kind of different. Wasn't a family thing anymore, it was just you eat with your friends.

BN: Did you feel like you got enough to eat?

WS: In a way. We had apple butter and stuff like that. And at first we had these tin plates, terrible thing to open out and eat out of those things. After a while they gave us regular.

BN: Were some of the mess halls better than others?

WS: It depended on the cooks.

BN: Yeah. Were you able to go to other mess halls?

WS: I think people were able to do that.

BN: Did you do that?

WS: Once in a while.

BN: Did you already have friends in Manzanar? Because you had moved to Boyle Heights, so were your friends from before now in other camps?

WS: Yeah, first we went with all Terminal Island people, Block 9 and 10 and 11, I guess. But they spoke all Japanese.

BN: Right, it's not the part of Terminal Island you were from.

WS: Right, we had a hard time. We were able to move, my mother got a job in the hospital, so we were able to move up to Block 29.

BN: I think you had mentioned that someone who became a friend for life was living in your block also, right?

WS: Really?

BN: John...

WS: Kawahara?

BN: Miyauchi?

WS: Who?

BN: Miyauchi?

WS: Oh, yeah. He's an artist.

BN: Right, right. But was he in Block 9 or 29?

WS: He was 28, I think.

BN: Okay. So that was after you moved.

WS: Yeah.

BN: What did your father do? Because he took a job...

WS: Yeah, he got a cushy job. He was working for one of those companies that you could buy things from, represented them, so he got a car to drive around the camp and everything. He had a good job.

BN: And your mom, you mentioned, was at the hospital. What did she do?

WS: Clerk. She was an older woman. For her it was great, all the women got together, and they stayed together even after camp.

BN: With her, people she met at the hospital?

WS: Yeah.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.