<Begin Segment 3>

HM: What did you think about when you first reached Manzanar?

YT: Well. they were still building buildings, you know, those barracks, and it looked so hot and dry and you think, oh, my goodness, and then when they led us to the barracks, there was nothing in there. We had to go get your own mattress, the hay, straw or something in the mattress. It was really something that we didn't expect.

HM: How did you and your family adjust to this?

YT: Adjust to that? Well, I remember Mrs. Taniguchi, and remember Bozo and Tsuruo, they stayed with us in the same section of the barrack, I remember, for a while. So she was kind of a comfort for me, because she would talk to me like a mother. But we made an adjustment.

HM: Did you move to Manzanar -- not Manzanar but Minidoka with many of the islanders?

YT: Well, when they said we were going to Minidoka, we didn't have the Bainbridge Review at the time, and they said apples and oranges don't mix. Well, I was kind of happy we were going up, because I'd see Mrs. Tsujimoto who was like a mother to us, so I liked it. But then when we reached Minidoka, it was cold, I think it was winter, and it was muddy and all that and kind of shocking, too, but everybody else had to put up with it, we could do it, too.

HM: Did you have, did you leave a lot of friends behind on Bainbridge and did you keep in touch with them?

YT: Not really. There was few, but then, those days, we didn't have cars to go visiting too many people and then, the few people we know were evacuated so there was no correspond... too much of it.

HM: What did you do in Minidoka and Manzanar? You must have been nineteen or twenty by then?

YT: What did we do over there?

HM: Uh-huh, what did you do?

YT: Let's see... when we reached Manzanar, I think we had to do some kind of work. Everybody volunteered to whatever, you know, there was a camouflage factory or something. Some guys went to farm. Well, we didn't know too much so we helped in the kitchen.

HM: That was in Manzanar. Did you have a job in Minidoka also?

YT: In Minidoka, I don't know how I got the job, but I worked in the Clothing Allowance Office.

HM: How did that work, the Clothing Allowance Office?

YT: Well, we... everybody had to work so much. Whoever worked got, I think we got $16 or something a month for working. So, that's all I remember, working in the office and meeting with all the girls there that I corresponded with after the war.

HM: And when you said "clothing allowance," did everyone in camp get it?

YT: Yeah, I'm sure everyone got it. $16 a month or 20 or something like that. It wasn't much, but I think everybody got it.

HM: To spend on clothing, is that...

YT: I think so.

HM: Do you remember the "loyalty questionnaire" that brought out some of the "No-No Boys"?

YT: I kind of remember, but then, I don't think we wrote "no-no." I'm not sure. Of course the parents were kind of hesitant for the kids, for us to be real loyal, because they put us in a place like that, but I don't think my dad said we should say "no-no." After all, we were, I mean, I wasn't a citizen at that time, but my kid sister and brothers were.

HM: Were you born in Japan?

YT: Yes. But I came over when I was nine months old, so I really don't know Japan. But still, I was an alien and I had to have alien card and all that kind of thing. That's why I had a hard time getting back to Bainbridge from Seattle when I was stuck there when the war broke out.

HM: Then the rest of your siblings were born in the United States?

YT: They were born in Seattle and Winslow.

HM: Did you have any contact with the Bainbridge Review, in reading it or anything at all?

YT: No, but I've heard from others that were reading the paper and all that, but I didn't have any contact.

HM: The rest of your siblings were fairly young when they were in camp, so they must have been in school during that time. Do you remember anything about their schooling?

YT: About my kids going to school in camp?

HM: Your sisters and -- yes.

YT: Not really. They did go, but I can't remember too much about that.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.