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BN: You were there a very short...

CT: Yeah, very short time. But I remember that we were fenced in, and there were grape vineyards, and that was farming grape vineyards, and two or three of us girls, we saw these wire fences, and in between, we'd reach down and grab the grapes, and you're stealing, but we thought, oh, we could get them, we were eating the grapes. And they did have the sentries, and they said, "Get away from that, get away." So we ran, and I ran back into the barracks, and I was eating it. And a day later, there was a notice on my door, and it said, "Ikuko Takano, report to main gate." And I thought, oh, we were stealing those grapes, and I thought I'd better go, and I didn't know where the others, we were all living in different barracks. And I got that, and says, "Bring this, bring this notice." And I didn't tell my parents, no one, nobody. And it was time to eat, and the bell rang, and you line up, but I was so scared. I went straight to, it's the main gate, so I went to the main gate. When I got there, I showed this, and they said, "Go in there." I said, "Do you know what it's about?" "No, just go there," so I did. And there was my teacher from Cortez grammar school, she brought me my report card. I was amazed. She said, "I got you your report card for you." And the others had all gotten it, but because I came from Alameda and I was there only two months or whatever, and she said, "Is there something I can get for you?" She saw how we were corralled. And it was hot that day, and said, "Would you like to have a little Coca-Cola?" I said, "Yes, please." And so she took me into this little place, and she put a nickel in, and she got this Coke for me, and I drank it down. She said, "Would you like another?" I said, "Yes, please." [Laughs] And she got it for me, and I said, "Well, thank you very much." And she said, "Are you doing all right? Are you fine?" I said, "Yes, thank you." And she said, "Well, I'm not supposed to be here very long, but I wrote before I came. But because you came from another town," and I was there only two months or something, "so I had to get your records from there, and that's why the others got theirs before they came into here, but I wanted you to have yours, too." So she came all the way and brought me my report card. That was nice of her.

BN: So you thought you were in trouble, but it was actually good.

CT: Yes, I thought because I was stealing the grapes, I thought, what am I gonna do if they jail us? It'll be like when our fathers disappeared with the FBI, I was so scared. And then I was just thinking, "Never steal anything," we were always told, "Never steal anything," but we didn't think we were stealing, we were reaching between the wire and getting the grapes. Never did it again. [Laughs]

BN: Do you remember much about the food, the mess halls at Merced?

CT: The Merced Assembly Center food was terrible, and I could even name the chief cook, but the Isseis were all saying, "He's not a cook, that's why the food is so horrible." And it was Nisei people, I guess they got paid, I don't know. But he was the chief cook, and they said he never cooked in his life before, it's horrible. But it wasn't that he wasn't a good cook. You know, as Japanese, we didn't eat liver and things like that, we didn't eat lamb, kind of food, and we got a lot of that kind of food, which I remember very well because I couldn't eat it, I couldn't eat it. But what was interesting is the ladies room was right next to the mess hall, everybody lined up. But you know how the bathroom was? Let me tell you. You go in, it's a little small building, not even a building, just a roof, and there's a board with four seats, and then another big one with a big hole. And then there was a board, I mean, there was a board, so partition, so I think there were four. And then you had no flush. On the other side, there was a bucket, and it filled up with water and it turned, and it flushed. It was on one end, so it flushed everything, so everybody stood up when that water goes, it's flushing under you. I thought that was the most horrible thing, and so everybody wanted to sit where the water was, because it's clean. But where it dumps, you didn't want to sit at the last seat, and that was right next to the mess hall. When you were standing in line, there you saw people's seat, it was that close. I remember my mother saying, "If they had to build, why would they build right next to, we're standing in line to go eat, that was horrible." Merced Assembly was not to... it really was temporary, thank goodness.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2019 Densho. All Rights Reserved.