<Begin Segment 5>

JN: Okay, do you have any stories that you can remember about Manzanar, or even Minidoka, like who you hung out with, what kind of things you did there, anything at all?

YO: Manzanar, I know I went to sewing school, I mean tailoring school. That was interesting. Well, in Idaho, since I was with a school I was, I used to hear a lot of things from what was happening on the island, so at least I knew what was going on. The teachers used to come over to the, to Bainbridge High School and then they'd come back and tell us what's happening. So that was interesting to know.

JN: Tell us a little bit about your tailor school in Manzanar. What was it like, how many people were there, what, what did you learn there? Just kind of tell us.

YO: That's something that if you don't keep it up you forget, a lot of measuring and making patterns. That's hard, difficult, so I never kept it up.

JN: But you remember going to the school and learning how to do all that kind of stuff?

YO: Uh-huh, but I don't think I can do it anymore.

JN: Did you sew after that, though, like after, or during camp time? Did you, were you able to sew?

YO: No, because we're not, weren't able to get the materials as you wanted to, so no, I didn't do any sewing in Manzanar. I helped the teacher out and that was all.

JN: Do you remember how many people were in that school? Were they all camp people?

YO: Oh yeah, they're all camp people.

JN: Do you remember, you were out of school at that time when you went to camp, is that right?

YO: Uh-huh.

JN: So who did you hang out with at camp? Did you have Bainbridge friends that you did things together?

YO: Yeah, Bainbridge friends. But then as we got acquainted with the camp people, whatever I was doing, well, I went with those people.

JN: Did you have fun doing, like meeting new people and having...

YO: Yeah, different. [Laughs] Of course, they speak different too, but they were nice, real nice people.

JN: Do you have any adventures? What did you do?

YO: We used to, in the afternoons when we had breaks, I used to help with the children's lunch, so dietician, as dietician, so when we had breaks in the afternoon we used to go down the river and just, just walk around and talk to have fun.

JN: At least you had more time to just enjoy and you didn't have to work then, when you're in camp.

YO: No, we had to work.

JN: Did you do anything outside of camp, like to go to work?

YO: One time I think we went out for, out to Burley doing housework. I think we were out for about a couple of months or so. I'm not sure.

JN: Is this in Idaho?

YO: This is in Idaho.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.