<Begin Segment 12>

MN: What was your first impression of Manzanar?

SO: Well, I peeked out the window and they had oil burning stoves, so that created a haze over the, over the camp, and we got there just at dusk. And I peeked out the window and here was this bunch of barracks, black barracks covered with this pall of smoke. That was my first glimpse of Manzanar.

MN: What were some of the first things that you did when you got to Manzanar?

SO: Well, the first thing they, they, of course, registered us and assigned us to a barracks, and gave us a mattress cover that we filled with straw. It was a sack that we filled with straw and took to our barracks, and that was our mattress.

MN: Some people got allergic reactions to the straw. Did you have any problems?

SO: No, I had no problems with the straw.

MN: Which block were you assigned to?

SO: We were, it was Block 18. I think it was 18-7-4. It was an end barrack, anyway.

MN: Block 18, Barrack 7, Apartment 4.

SO: Yeah.

MN: So who were you assigned to? Who, who did you live with?

SO: Well, we lived with the people that came with us. That was my father, my brother, and I, there was a bachelor, his sister-in-law, husband, and small child, and then this mother and grown daughter.

MN: You had ten people.

SO: Yeah.

MN: How were you able to fit into this unit?

SO: We managed somehow. The only way we could maintain any visual privacy was to hang a, one of the blankets on the ropes that were strung across the rooms. Now, I don't know where we got the rope, but they gave us two blankets.

MN: So when you arrived at Manzanar, was the rest of the camp still being constructed?

SO: Yeah. That's why they put so many families in one room, because they didn't have enough apartments to accommodate all of the people that came. So eventually, when the camp was finished, we were moved out to the farther, furthest corner of the camp, which was Block 35 and -6. We lived in Block 35.

MN: So who moved out?

SO: Well, we all moved out.

MN: So when you moved out to Block 35 who did you live with?

SO: We, that's when we got our own apartment.

MN: With your father, you, and your brother only?

SO: That's right.

MN: So when you moved to Block 35, where did everybody come from?

SO: They came from all over. There was a mixture of people there. I mean, we had arrived from Venice with a lot of L.A. people, there were some people that came from up north, but it was just a conglomerate of people from different areas.

MN: When you first arrived at Manzanar, what was security like?

SO: It was very tight. They used to flash the spotlights that they had on the guard towers, they'd flash 'em along the fences, make sure that, I guess, we didn't get out, not that they wanted, that they were guarding against people getting in. If that were the case the towers would've been on the inside of the fence, rather on the outside. So yeah, that was meant to keep us in rather than other people out.

MN: Now let me ask you a little bit about the food. What do you remember of the food at Manzanar?

SO: Well, at the beginning I think the food was terrible. We had powdered milk, powdered eggs. I don't think they had provided for rice at the time, which was odd being that the inmates were all Asians. I can remember repeated meals of Vienna sausage and sauerkraut. To this day I can't eat Vienna sausages, or I can't eat apple butter. Those are the things, I think, that were most frequently served.

MN: Now, early on, did you have any problems with diarrhea from the food?

SO: No.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.