Densho Digital Archive - Nob Koura Interview (denshovh-knob-01-0007)

<Begin Segment 7>

FK: What were conditions like in Manzanar? What was it like there?

NK: Well, you just got up, ate breakfast, hang around. [Laughs] Oh, and then eventually we got to go out to work. I went out to work up in Idaho. I guess it was Idaho, on a farm. Then I got to know the people quite well. When eventually we got home, they came out to see us and visit for a while and stayed at our place. They were nice people.

FK: What was the food like in Manzanar?

NK: Oh, I forget. I forget what kind of food it was. But it kept us alive.

FK: So you had a pretty large family then, so what was the living arrangements like in the barracks?

NK: The what?

FK: In the barracks, what kind of living arrangements did you have in the barracks? You had a pretty large family.

NK: Oh. Well, it was, you know, all you had to do was sleep, crawl in the bed and sleep. We all had our beds, our own beds. I think we all had our own beds. Sleep, get up, go to work. We had little jobs that we could do.

FK: What kind of jobs?

NK: Well, not much 'til later on. What did I do? Not much of anything, I guess, until things got settled. I know I worked at something or other.

FK: Can you tell me about camouflage nets?

NK: Oh, yeah. Enhanced them, I guess it was weave stuff through the camouflage nets.

FK: So you're making them for the army or what?

NK: I guess that's what it was. Big, they'd hang from the ceiling down and we'd thread stuff through it. They were pretty big size, they hung down from the ceiling and just thread colored cloth through 'em.

FK: So when you went to Idaho, what kind of farm was it?

NK: He raised some spuds, had sheep, cattle, then he had the spuds, Idaho spuds.

FK: So was there a group of you that went at the same time?

NK: Well, I went to work on this man's farm. I stayed with him and lived in his home and just worked on his farm.

FK: So how long did you do that?

NK: I forget how many months I was there. About half a year or a year, I guess. He came out to see me, too, after the war ended, he and his wife. Nice family.