Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Francis Mas Fukuhara Interview
Narrator: Francis Mas Fukuhara
Interviewers: Tom Ikeda (primary), Elmer Good (secondary)
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: September 25, 1997
Densho ID: denshovh-ffrancis-01-0013

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TI: When you think about your, your experiences at Minidoka, are there any memories that sort of stand out or feelings that stand out?

FF: Well, I kind of, I think that really... you read about all this lack of parental discipline and stuff like that that went on because people, they didn't have really the family circumstance. I mean, nobody ate together and stuff like that. But I think really, for a lot of us, we... it turned on a really, a lot of rebellion in a lot of people. And cripes, I remember we used to do stuff that we never would have done in our regular lives. I mean, gee, we used to steal stuff from the warehouse and stuff like that, and never give it two thoughts. And heck, we weren't brought up that way.

EG: What kind of stuff did you steal?

FF: Oh, heck, I can remember some friends needed, say, floor covering... linoleum. And we'd talk to some friends up in the warehouse and when they weren't looking, we'd walk out with whole rolls of linoleum. And we'd run off with bags of sugar, hundred-pound bags of sugar and stuff like that. We used to do a lot of stuff that was really...

EG: I can see the linoleum, and I understand wood and stuff that you could use for building or fixing up your place where you're living. But what would you do with a hundred pounds of sugar?

FF: Well, you'd distribute it, really, to your friends. I don't think I ever, I don't think I ever used the sugar I stole. But there was one guy in camp, his name was "Baghdad." They called him Baghdad because he was a thief. [Laughs] And anyway, we used to hang out with this guy. He was slicker than, slicker than heck. He knew just how to get stuff. He was always running around taking orders from his friends. He was sort of "Robin Hood-ish."

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.