<Begin Segment 4>

FK: So tell me about camp life for you.

BT: Camp life. We just, as kids, we played, all we did was play. Play basketball, they had a basketball court out there in the block. We lined up for chow, eat with our friends, not with our family. It wasn't, it was kind of fun compared to working on the farm.

FK: How did your parents react? Was there any reaction on their part?

BT: No, I don't recall. I don't recall their reaction. They worked in the mess hall, by the way.

FK: So what was school in concentration camp like?

BT: School, I don't know. The facilities were a lot different, and the barracks, tarpaper shack barracks, I don't know. The environment was different was the main thing, I guess.

FK: So what do you remember doing in camp as a kid? What are the things you remember?

BT: Well, you know, there was a little creek that run through the camp there on the southwest corner of the camp, and we'd go there for swimming and things like that.

[Interruption]

FK: So you said there was a creek in camp?

BT: Yeah, there was a creek that ran through the southwest corner of the camp, and then a little park there. It wasn't too far from Block 3 that we lived in.

FK: So what did you do there?

BT: Well, we'd go swimming and things like that. There was also a golf course there once at the west side of the camp. It was all sand. I remember playing with Ken Nakata once.

FK: So Ken was about your age?

BT: He was... he's a little older than me, maybe four years or something like that.

FK: So you said that when you ate, you ate with your friends more than your family. Now, were most of your friends in the same block?

BT: Yeah.

FK: Yeah? So they were mostly from Bainbridge?

BT: Yeah. I remember... what's Ken's wife's name?

FK: Kitayama.

BT: Yeah. Ted and Ki and Takahashis. I think there were some kids that weren't from Bainbridge Island, too. This was after most of the Bainbridge Island people went to Minidoka and some other people moved in.

FK: So how many families stayed in Manzanar?

BT: Gee, I don't know how many, but I remember we stayed and Nakatas stayed. I can't think of any other. I know there probably were, but I can't remember.

FK: So did you have any feelings when everybody else left and a few of you guys stayed in Manzanar?

BT: I don't remember my feelings at the time. I think primarily most people moved because they had friends from Seattle at Minidoka. We didn't have any close friends in Seattle, so I guess that's why he chose, the families chose to stay.

FK: When they started asking for volunteers out of the camps and stuff, did anybody you know go in the service?

BT: Nobody I knew. I remember Gerald Nakata, I don't know when he entered, but I remember him coming back for a visit one time.

FK: Now, did you ever end up in the service or any of your brothers?

BT: Not during wartime, but after the war.

FK: After the war.

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