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BN: Now, when you first got to Manzanar, it was under the administration of the army, basically, and then switched over to the WRA later. Did you notice a difference over time? Was there a change in how strict things were or general conditions?

WS: No. More democratic, certainly, the movies and all that stuff.

BN: Whereas before...

WS: Yeah, we didn't know what was going to happen.

BN: Because during the assembly center period, the army period, were guards patrolling the camp at that point?

WS: I don't know about patrolling. Probably, at least on the outside.

BN: But you don't remember guards...

WS: Inside.

BN: Inside?

WS: Not too much. But they had lights, that's what's scary. At night, the lights would go all around.

BN: Was that just during the army period or was that even after the WRA took over?

WS: Probably in the army period, I'm not sure.

BN: So it ended at a certain point.

WS: Yeah. At one point, the searchlights were on at night.

BN: Now, I'm wondering, given the politics at Manzanar, your dad's kind of a younger Issei, English-speaking, and he has a good job. Was he -- I know you were a kid, you may not know this -- but was he ever kind of suspected as being too much of a collaborator? Because that was an issue at Manzanar.

WS: Yes, because he was supportive of the JACL people. So we were kind of in a mixed group. He was an Issei, but he was a young Issei, so his friends were still...

BN: But did that get him into any trouble with, kind of, the other factions that opposed JACL that you know of?

WS: Well, we kind of stayed all aloof, we didn't want to get involved with the things that were going on. Just wanted to get out of camp.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.