Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Chizuko Norton Interview
Narrator: Chizuko Norton
Interviewer: Alice Ito
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: April 27, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-nchizuko-01-0021

<Begin Segment 21>

AI: When you got to Tule Lake, who were you living together with then? Was it just yourself and your sister and your two parents?

CN: Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

AI: And, let me see, I think we had taken a look at an illustration of the Tule Lake camp picture.

CN: Yes, we did, didn't we? I'm going to give this to you.

AI: And let's see if I can find this. Could you show the block where... [Ed. note: Shows a map of the Tule Lake internment camp]

CN: Yes. It's, it's 67, right here. And there's the school and the administration buildings here and the hospital.

AI: And what do you... you were saying, I think, earlier, that you all came in a group, of course, from Pinedale and some of the folks were all people that you had known before and that some of you did live together in and around that same block area.

CN: Yes. We've, this Block 67 was... a few of us from Bellevue, but majority from Tacoma and Hood River, Oregon. And then a lot of our friends lived over here in "Alaska" way back there. [Laughs]

AI: Way on the other side.

CN: Way on the other side. And we, we didn't visit "Alaska" all that much. We did some, but not all that much.

AI: Can you tell me a little bit about, as you think back -- my understanding is Tule Lake was quite large, somewhere in the neighborhood of 8, 9000 or so, and at it's peak, even larger. So it was really bigger than some small towns. And I wanted to ask you a little bit about what community life was like, if you can call it community life. For example, around your block and that, that area of blocks, did that become like a community to you?

CN: Uh-uh.

AI: No.

CN: I didn't think it was. We, they had some dances and that kind of thing, but there... it was not just this one block, there were people from all over who had come. And then we also took classes, and they, they had schools and lots of... Oh, I'm trying to think of the name of people who would put on some... anyone who was able to do anything, would, like sing or dance or play any instruments, would, we would have -- oh, talent shows, lots and lots of them, not that I had any, and I was not, I was one of the, in the audience, certainly not a participant. But that was always fun. And played lots... lots of baseball teams.

AI: So there were a number of organized activities, but you wouldn't really say that there was a community identity?

CN: Well, other than the fact that you said, "I'm from Block 67," and, "I'm from Block 66," and that kind of thing, but not like it was in Bellevue.

AI: Right. Not nearly the same kind of, sense of...

CN: And by this time, I felt that we were all kind of in it, all in the same boat together. And the idea was to go to school, get jobs, and meet as many people as you possibly could.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.