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GS: And your memory at the ferry dock on March 30, 1942, do you remember anything about that time?

TS: Well, only thing I could say, it wasn't a very pleasant scene at all because everybody was kind of, you might say very sad about it, very quiet, and I was very... I think, didn't feel too good myself, because although I didn't know too many people there that came down to say goodbye.

GS: And then you went on a ferry and then you went on a train, and then by train you went by bus to Manzanar.

TS: That's right.

GS: Do you remember the first time you entered the gates there at Manzanar, what it was like?

TS: Well, it was a very kind of desolate place, you know, out in the desert, you might say a desert with a little barrack and they had a barbed wire fence around it so they, it wasn't, it didn't look very, shall I say, inviting at all.

GS: And when you arrived, you were assigned to a barracks. Do you remember what barracks number that was?

TS: I think it was Barracks 3 but that's about the only thing I could, Barracks 3, is all I could remember.

GS: That was real close to the entrance because you were one of the first groups to arrive?

TS: Yeah.

GS: How was the day to day life in that camp compared to what it was like at the Herbers'.

TS: Well, they want you to do some kind of work for them, for the government, you know, to take care of the place. I wanted to be the carpenter, but that was all filled up so I took a job as a plumber helper and I begin to learn what the plumbing was. I wasn't too sure what really involved.

GS: And you worked as a plumber helper five days a week?

TS: Yeah, that's right.

GS: So you had a couple days where you could just relax?

TS: That's right.

GS: What did you do during those days?

TS: Well, there isn't much to do, you know. Until the boys begin to form a baseball team and that's when we started to have a little bit of game off and on, when the boys get together.

GS: And shortly after arriving at Manzanar, you married your wife.

TS: That's right. We were the second couple to get married there. We were married by the Methodist minister who came from nearby little town and married us just in our barrack. And we had a reception down by, you might say, they had a big store there and they opened up that place to have a reception.

GS: During that time you were there, did you read or get any copies of the Bainbridge Review? Did you hear about it?

TS: No, I didn't know there was a Review paper at all, 'til we got back later on to the Bainbridge Island.

GS: Then in 1943, your son, older son David was born.

TS: Yeah.

GS: Was there a hospital that he was...

TS: Yeah, they did have a facility for that. And they had a competent doctor and a nurse and so forth.

GS: Did you hear of any stories of people sneaking out of camp going fishing up in the Sierra Nevadas?

TS: No.

GS: There was a "loyalty oath" questionnaire that came out during that time at Manzanar. Do you remember filling out that "loyalty questionnaire"?

TS: No, I didn't because, the reason is because I was never a citizen.

GS: So only citizens, U.S. citizens could fill out that questionnaire?

TS: Well, I suppose. That's what they wanted, I think.

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