<Begin Segment 4>

FK: What did you think when you saw Manzanar, when the bus pulled into Manzanar?

IY: Well, when we... well, we didn't get to see anything 'cause when we left Seattle they told us to close the blinds. We went through L.A. and I thought, maybe we could put -- 'cause we went through there at night. But we didn't want to take the chance. Then the next stop was Mojave. We wonder where Mojave, we never heard of that place. After it was in the morning, we got to Mojave and we all got off and got on the bus. They drove us north and they say going to Manzanar. We never heard of the place so we didn't know what it was. All we know it was the desert. After we finally got to the camp, barbed wire and soldiers. They check us and then they let us go through on the bus one by... I think there was three buses. So four drove into camp. The camp we looked at was, it wasn't too pleasant at the time. 'Cause they were just in the, developing the area there and there were trenches, holes here and holes there. Pipe here. Only thing that was there was one or two block of barracks and administration buildings and a mess hall, naturally. To us, well, for the male I think it wasn't too bad 'cause they was more active. They could do this jump here, jump there. I think I felt more sorry for the females 'cause, like when we were ready to go to mess hall we have to jump across the trenches and everything and they're not used to that kind of treatment at that time. They thought it was probably gonna be a little bit nicer place. But after we got to the mess hall, I thought it was pretty good because they served beans and wieners. I like beans and wieners. But lot of girls don't like those. Lot of 'em was cryin'... the younger ones. Then we were sent back to the barracks to get assigned to the barrack. From there it took its course. Didn't think too much of the barrack because of the sandstorm they usually have. Or it's a duststorm, that's what it is. When it blew it blew. And no privacy until about the last, almost a year, the time that we were there, around the last part, it started improving. They put linoleum on the floor and they had lawn in between the barracks. They still didn't have no partition. It's just the outside area. Some of the facilities were improved.

FK: What were the bathroom facilities like when you got there?

IY: Well, it was just like a regular barrack bathroom, shower on one side and on the other side was the bathroom, the toilet, you wanna call it. Not the flushing type. It wasn't a flushing type. It was just like the old military barracks when you go overseas. But we had shower, which wasn't too bad.

FK: Describe the toilets for me. I mean, I'm having a hard time -- they weren't the flushing type? How did they work?

IY: Oh, it's just a regular outhouse, that's the type. More seating... that's the type they had.

FK: So it was a row of seating?

IY: It's a row. One row on one side and then the sink on the other side. The other half was the shower room. The shower room would, I guess you'd call it a laundry room which most of the people gathered together from the other barracks. 'Cause the barracks, the room wasn't exactly a place for friends to gather. 'Cause it's too... the rooms are partitioned off with blankets and the bed was just cot or cot springs or cot and it had straw mattress. And when the dust, it comes through the cracks. It was no place to have visitors and to entertain. So we all gathered in the, the laundry room and do the best we can to enjoy ourselves while we're there. We didn't know how long. But we met a lot of people there from other, like California. There was a lot of people from there. After it got settled for a while. But we didn't stay there too long. As you know, we were moved to Minidoka about... we stayed about a year and then moved to Minidoka. The rest mostly was Californians. They stayed behind.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.