<Begin Segment 9>

MN: Let me ask you about Manzanar now. Do you remember what month or day you went into Manzanar? [AK shakes head] Do you remember where you gathered to go into Manzanar, or how you got to Manzanar?

AK: All I remember is getting on a bus, a great big bus.

MN: Was it like a Greyhound bus?

AK: No. I can't remember.

MN: How many buses were there?

AK: I don't know what, only they picked us up at all different places, and I don't know how many buses.

MN: Maybe five, ten?

AK: No, not that much. Two or three, I guess, about two or three.

MN: Did these buses have bathrooms?

AK: I don't know.

MN: Did they make a pit stop somewhere?

AK: Yeah, they did.

MN: Do you think it was at Little Lake?

AK: Gee, I don't know. I don't remember that.

MN: So when you got to Manzanar, what was your first impression of Manzanar?

AK: I don't remember if I went fishing over there before.

MN: [Laughs] Not yet, not yet. When you first walked into Manzanar, what did you think?

AK: What did I what, did I think?

MN: Yeah, what did you think of Manzanar when you first walked in there?

AK: I didn't know what to expect. I just hoped, I just made sure that our family stuck together, they weren't scattered. That's about all I worried about.

MN: Which block did you first live in?

AK: First it was way down Block 6, I think, and then when they finished the hospital it was way up in, up on the end of camp, so I went applied and I got the job at the hospital, so I was able to move to Block 29. That was right next to the hospital.

MN: Now, when you first moved in and you're living in block six, how bad were the sandstorms?

AK: It was pretty bad. Yeah, every time the wind, we had to close the window every night. Even then... at that time the barracks was still new. When they built it there was raw redwood, and during the heat that thing shrunk and there were spaces all over, so we had to block that with something so that we won't get the dust in the house.

MN: So how long was it like that before they put tarpaper on it?

AK: It was only about a year. They had it started in one corner and it took about a year before they got to our barrack. We, Block 29 was way in the opposite corner of our administration building, I think. They finished administration building, they came around, and I don't remember how we had to wait, though.

MN: So when you were still in Block 6, did you get tarpaper at all?

AK: The Block 6 was alright. They it all fixed. They were still building others.

MN: How long did you live there before you moved to Block 29?

AK: That, I don't know. Not very long, maybe a month or so.

MN: Now, Block 29 is right across from the Children's Village.

AK: Yes, right across.

MN: Did you have any interaction with the orphanage?

AK: No. Our door -- barrack is this long and the two, two ends is one door, and the two doors in the middle -- but I was right at the end facing that orphanage, so we got on pretty good. We made some friends.

MN: Your wife was sharing that your sister Tillie was over there quite a lot.

AK: Yeah, she had a friend in there, best pal was an orphan. They were always together.

MN: Now, you know when you went into Manzanar, did you take any seeds with you?

AK: I don't think so. I don't know, I didn't know if we could plant anything, if there was a farm. But they may, after we got settled, then I had a friend, we used to correspond and I asked him to send us some seeds. And she did, and then I planted it and then, inside of the barrack. Some people keep stealing it, so I had to build a fence. There were a lot of dead trees that they chopped off, so a lot of branches, and I made a fence so they can't get in there.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.