<Begin Segment 8>

FK: So how long did you stay in Manzanar?

GN: I stayed a little over a year. The, in the fall of '42, most of the young kids were in the service in this country, and they wanted farm labor help. So six of us from Bainbridge joined a bunch, group from the other camps, went to Idaho and helped harvest the sugar beets and potatoes. And that was real hard work. And some of those kids didn't see a Japanese before, so it was really a novelty to them. But I think they were really, really surprised we spoke such good English, and that made it easy to come back.

I remember going to, in a theater with a couple of L.A. people, and they were wearing these suits, they call 'em "zoot suits" -- no cuffs, tight cuffs, and their hair was just plastered with hair cream, plastered down. And went into this theater, small theater, about the size of the Lynwood Theatre, we sat about halfway down. The lights were still on, and as the movie was ready to start, the lights dimmed and I heard someone in the back says, "Geez, they got sideburns." In them days, the talk was about the rice-bowl haircuts that they used in Japan, no, no sideburns. And then after the movie was over, we went outside. We were staying in the FHA camp, I don't know how far away, but it was some of the kids that started throwing rocks at us as we left the theater.

FK: Now, where you there? Where were you at the... what city or what town were you in?

GN: Pardon?

FK: What town were you in when that happened?

GN: What time?

FK: What town? Where were you?

GN: Oh, that was in Filer, Idaho, a small town. And then when we went to camp, there was one huge room, like the Oddfellows Hall. And I can remember Reverend Fukuyama, he was an islander, he came to visit us. And some of the, some of the kids I knew, they didn't know, they didn't know he was a reverend, and every other word was a cuss word. And Reverend Furukawa was, I would say, if he was living today, he'd be about eighty-seven. I'll never forget that. [Laughs] That was kind of humorous, but being Tom, he took it all in stride. He came to give us morale.

FK: You said some of the kids were throwing rocks at you, what happened after that happened?

GN: The kids at the theater?

FK: Yeah.

GN: Oh, the other two kids were, they were ready to fight. But the kids were in a car, they didn't stop, they just drove by. And then that same... in Idaho, when I was in Caldwell, worked on the farm and were sortin' onions. And one of my crew bosses' brother-in-law was in the 442, and he came on furlough ready to go overseas, and one of the other workers, Caucasian kids, says, "Look at that Jap. He's in uniform, what's he doin'?" And he was ready to fight him, he was ready to take him on.

And one of our crew bosses' wife's brother, he just, he came back from overseas, 442, and he was one of the first one who got hurt -- he had a shrapnel in his, in the head, steel plate. And I took him down to Caldwell, Idaho, and he says, "I want to get a haircut." But on the sign there, door, it says: "No Japs. We don't serve Japs." He said, "I'm gonna go in anyway." 'Cause he had his, he had his Army uniform on, fatigues, and he went in there. He told me, "No luck." He says, "I couldn't get my hair cut." I remember that.

And then when we were in Caldwell, Idaho, I took my sister down to, to go grocery shopping. And my, Ken, my brother was with us, and another family, boy, his name was Min Yamaguchi. And Min and Ken were walking the streets in Idaho, Caldwell, Idaho, and Min had real thick glasses and bad eyesight. And one of the marines, just got out of camp and saw these, Ken and Min, they chased them. And Min, Min fell and knocked his glasses off. An [inaudible] came by and shoved the marine away, he says, "You just pick on somebody else." This happened in Idaho.

And we, family we worked with, the Dean family, they were really good to us, real true Christian family. And we worked for 'em for about two, three years. My brother-in-law was crew boss, and even after the war, they came and visited to, where my brother-in-law lived in Quilcene.

FK: You said Moe was in the 442, but did you hear anything from him while you were in camp or while you were in Idaho? Did you hear anything from Moe?

GN: Of course, Moe got engaged right before, before he left for overseas, saw Cora was in Hunt, Idaho, then, so she heard a lot from him. We'd hear how we was doing. I think he wrote me a couple of letters. Yeah, it was, it was a nervous deal.

And while I was in Chicago... the Seiki family, they lived, they lived near the airport, they had a nursery there. And they were, they were our close friends. While I was in Chicago there was, they were our neighbors. And one of the boys was a 442, he was the same age as I am. And he was a real happy-go-lucky kid when we were going to high school. But when he went overseas, I'll never forget, I read that letter he wrote to his mother, and he was really nervous and he says, "I prayed every night." About two weeks later, he got killed.

FK: So did Moe come back with any injuries, or safely?

GN: Well, he had a shrapnel wound when he was in France, I think. And then he had an R&R at London for about a month. So he would tell -- he never talked too much about the war. But he says that was a "million dollar wound." I don't think he went back after he, after he left London, to go back into, go back into combat.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.