Densho Digital Archive - Tatsukichi Moritani Interview (denshovh-mtatsukichi-01-0009)

<Begin Segment 9>

FK: What were your, what do you remember about the train ride down to Manzanar?

TM: The train ride to Manzanar? I thought it was alright. [Laughs] Everybody wrote back home and said what a good ride, and then the army, after that, and the evacuation got, rest of the evacuees had the day coach. I guess they did away with the Pullman car. Bainbridge Island guys were the only guys that got it.

FK: So what were your feelings when you got on the bus and you got to Manzanar? What were your feelings when you got there?

TM: Yeah, when you go through that desert there, sure is a desolate-looking place, I guess. Just like somebody else said this, but when you turned in at where Manzanar was, said, "What an awful place, it looks like. Hope we don't stop here." And sure enough they turned in, and there it was, half, various stages of construction there.

FK: What do you remember about the first few days in camp? What things do you remember about that?

TM: No, I don't remember too much about it. All I know is it was pretty dusty, anyway.

FK: How did the dust affect things?

TM: Pardon?

FK: How did the dust affect things?

TM: [Pause] [Shakes head]

FK: How was the food?

TM: Oh, it wasn't good.

FK: By "it wasn't good," what was it like? What was the food like?

TM: [Pause]

FK: What would have been a typical thing, you know, that you would have got for meals in camp?

TM: Yeah... certain days we had beans, I guess. Fish on some days, I used to... I didn't like that. That fish didn't smell very fresh, anyway.

FK: How did you pass the time in camp? What did you do?

TM: Oh, we applied for jobs for sixteen bucks a month. I was a plumber there one day, went around with the truck, you throw mattresses into the new building. Then I was a boiler-tender for two blocks, I guess. There was about six water heaters in each block, you know, and you had to keep 'em going, I guess.

FK: So you get paid at the end of the month, is that how they...?

TM: Yeah.

FK: And what did you do with your money when you got paid?

TM: [Laughs] Sixteen bucks a month? You spend it all at the store.

FK: So they had, they had a store in camp?

TM: Yeah.

FK: Tell me about the store in camp.

TM: Well, you could buy cookies, Cheez-Its, pop... stuff like that. I don't know if they had any dry goods store or not. You could order Sears-Roebuck, I guess.