Densho Digital Archive - Joe Kino Interview (denshovh-kjoe-01-0006)

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MH: What kind of work did you do outside the camp?

JK: Well, mostly construction. I was driving the dump truck for Hoop Construction to haul all the dirt to fill up the bump or something like that. So I just, well, sometimes we have to work late. I don't know, sometimes I get kind of sleepy. But we all survived that ordeal. The big incident that I remember in California was that big riot in that camp. At that time, I think everybody knows that the riot in the Manzanar camp, that a couple people got killed. And I would say at that time I was working in the transportation department, and we were afraid that when the people start coming at that time, why, they're gonna start looking for the key to the pickup and the cars to drive everybody around. So we, I noticed that we hid all the keys away from where we usually keep, and we only had one car key for our own driving. And the rest of 'em, why, we just locked up somewhere else, I don't know why, but the foreman's kind of worried about, something happens, then everybody gonna rush for the transportation to get out of there. So we thought that there might be better things to do and the foreman just put the key under the lock except the one that we have to use. I remember we drove one or two people to hospital at that time, and then one people was pretty bad and I don't remember his name, but he died on the way to the hospital. It was kind of sad things but happened that way. Well, in Manzanar, for a riot, I don't know how that things happen, but people, all the people went to that front gate to protest something. And then I remember that the big wind came up, and when the wind came up, I thought sandstorm started. That's why I don't know, the soldiers thought that we're doing something, so they start shooting instead of asking questions. That's, well, then everybody else was scattered around, but I wasn't there, so I don't know exactly what really happened. But afterwards, why people were talking, when the sandstorm started, then... all you need together like this, and one people do something, and then everybody follows it. I don't know how many people, soldiers shoot at us, but they stopped shooting right away. When they started shooting, the people in the front line got shot. So they rushed over to transportation department and told us that some people got shot. So we went to pick 'em up, take 'em to the hospital. We only had one car, so I remember we put two people in the car and then just rushed to the hospital.

HM: That's a sad time.

JK: I know that was a sad occurrence, but just can't help it, I guess.

HM: So did you have to have special permission to work with the transportation department or was that part of the camp setup?

JK: That was a part of our camp work. I remember we took some truck up to Lone Pine station to transport some people from, California people from that station to camp, and then later on, their freight came in and we have go over there to pick up their belongings then bring it into the camp. That's the only time we went out of the camp. Of course, it's, guard's with you so you can't go anywhere else. [Laughs]

HM: Now, what do you remember about Minidoka in Idaho?

JK: Well, when we got to Minidoka, I was in camp just a few months, I think. And then there was a... they said there was a job outside of camp in Twin Falls, so I think half a dozen of us applied for the job. Then we got the job, so we went out, we went out of camp and worked in the Twin Falls area. That's when I was working for Hoop Construction in Twin Falls. I don't know whether they have a Hoop Construction in Twin Falls right now or not, but 1943, '44, those days, that was a pretty good sized construction company.

HM: Were there many people that you knew that worked outside of camp around your age? What did the people your age do?

JK: Well, I don't know what other people did, but quite a few people went out, young people that went out to farm, to help the farm harvest their crop. After Hoop Construction job, that fall, we went to Pocatello to pick spuds and harvest beets and things like that during the harvest time.