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DG: And what else do you remember about the food in the cafeterias and...

TK: The food wasn't very good. The lambs... and they used to have a lotta lamb. And a lotta people didn't like the lamb. And I can't remember what it was that we didn't like. The only thing we did like was pancakes in the morning, but we didn't have it all the time. So we'd find out which mess halls were serving pancakes and we'd run to that, but then they put a stop to that, too. I don't know, yeah, I think they had scrambled eggs and potatoes and things like that. So, everybody... I guess the kids didn't like it, they'd look for pancakes someplace. [Interruption] Yeah, it was the cooks that made the difference. Whether it's a restaurant or a home or, yeah, in the camp. If you had a group of cooks that didn't know how to prepare food and prepare it so it tasted good, yeah, nobody would nobody would eat it. Nobody'd... they just left it, they didn't even eat it. It's just not... we'd just, we could go from one meal to the next meal without eating because it didn't make any difference. But I can't remember all of that. I can't even remember all the food that they served, either. All I... geez, well, I don't remember whether they served rice or okazu or whether it's English meals or Caucasian meals. I don't remember spaghettis and I don't remember... I don't remember anything about it.

DG: Can you describe to me where your family lived, the barracks?

TK: We were, yeah... all I know is we were on the last barrack... you know, if you were facing this way there were barracks on both side, we were the second one. The Kitamotos were right next to us, I think. I remember, I don't remember... you, Frank, crying all the time. [Laughs] All I remember is, yeah. All I remember is crying all the time. I could hear him. And the Hayashidas were directly across from us, all I remember. And who else? I don't know who was next to us on this side. Kitamotos were on the, toward the barrack, I mean, the mess hall side. I don't know and I don't remember how many, I think there was three rooms or three families in each barrack. There's not two, it was three, I think, or was it four? I can't remember.

DG: And what was it like inside?

TK: Inside we just had a potbellied stove with coal that we kept warm. Other than that, just a cot, and that's all. Well, you made your own... you had to scrounge up your own chairs or table, and a lot of the people were out scrounging for extra material. I mean, you know, where they're building and they got shot at because you can't cross beyond a certain point, but they'd steal that lumber and try to make tables and things. And lotta that was goin' on, they were makin' tables and artwork. And, 'cause, what was out there? Was it sagebrush? They'd cut it, it'd be big and plant and they'd cut it and they'd sand it down and they'd make tables out of it, and they'd put legs on it. But I wasn't one of them, I remember a lot of 'em did that. They had nothin' to do, but it was somethin'. I guess all I'd do was playing baseball or football or walkin' around with a group. Oh, we had to go to school, too. Yeah, we were in school, too. All of the day was taken up in school and little bit of time playin' baseball, football, or basketball. Other than that... and dancing at nights. Not every night, but, you know, on I think weekends only, they'd have dancing in the... at nights. Other than that, I don't remember too much about it.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.