<Begin Segment 6>

JN: What was your first impression of Manzanar when you got there?

TE: My first impressions? I thought there was a whole bunch of rhubarb houses. 'Cause that was the type of building that our, we grew the rhubarb in. It was just tarpaper over, I don't know, boards. When I first saw that I said, "Oh, look at all the rhubarb houses." And then I saw people working on it. They were dark. I mean, they were darker than I'd seen people. Then we went in, but it was... the buildings were, I think, finished but the ground wasn't. I know there was ditches along the way, you had to watch where you were going so you wouldn't fall into it or step into 'em. They were, I think, still putting in sewer lines and stuff. I know there was a communal, well... I think there was women's and men's side. I know the women's there was just showerheads. That was the first time I saw a shower. But they were really cold. The water was cold to me. And there were no partitions. It was kind of... some people didn't like that.

[Interruption]

JN: Can you share some of your personal stories and memories that you have of the camps, good or bad? Let's start maybe with Manzanar. Tell us about your close friends and who you hanged out with and who you, what kind of things you did.

TE: I don't think I made any really, outside of the Bainbridge Island people... well, besides my relative Lilly and her family, I really didn't know any other people. Oh, maybe John Nakata, that family. But the rest I didn't really know at all because, since we didn't have a car usually and they didn't have, I don't think, have a car. If they had a car they usually went to the field or the dad drove it to his workplace. So you don't really go to somebody's house. If you wanted to you had to wait 'til the father, somebody came home. So I got to know more kids from the island than if I had stayed home, I mean, stayed on Bainbridge Island. I know when we first went there was no school 'cause they weren't ready for us then. I think after a couple months school started. It was about another block over. Of course you walked 'cause there was no bus transportation or anything like that then.

JN: So who did you play with when you were at camp?

TE: Mostly Lilly and the Bainbridge Island girls. Sometimes there were... the boys we didn't play with them too much, not at that age. We played... there were really not too much at Manzanar. We just played, caught ants, caught, I think horned toads, and watch out for scorpions. That's about it, maybe some hopscotch and stuff, stuff you could sort of draw games on the ground. I think there were marbles... no, I think the sand was too, too soft that you could really play marbles. I know the sand, when they had sandstorms, it was really bad. It was very stingy and there were tumbleweeds which came rolling around. You had to watch out for them 'cause they were prickly too.

JN: So, could you tell when a storm was coming by and you'd have to run home or what did you do? Or it lasted the whole day or how did it work?

TE: Yeah. I think sometimes it lasted a whole day and you just did what you can, or you stayed inside and just run out to eat, go to the mess hall and run back.

JN: Do you think it was very different from if you were on Bainbridge, except for the fact that you had more friends there? How was it different?

TE: How was it different? Well, the weather was different, really. There were no really green trees around. Like, we used to go play in the woods, but you couldn't do that. I remember there were warehouses next to out block, which I think they made camouflage nets there or something. But we were not allowed to go over to that side of the road anyway.

JN: Did you miss school?

TE: Did I miss?...

JN: When you were there you didn't go to school for a while 'til they built the school. Is that right?

TE: Well, it wasn't really built, the school. It was just another barrack that they converted into school rooms. So I think they must have had three or three or four barracks that they designated as school rooms.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.