<Begin Segment 18>

DC: So what was the hardest thing about being at the camp?

CM: Hardest thing was we volunteered to harvest sugar beets in Montana. They had labor shortage, they had the crop out in the field but they had no labor to harvest. They asked for volunteers to help. And we were young there, and we thought well this would be a good opportunity to see the outside world again, and so we volunteered. Five of us... well, they took more than us, but we're within group, five. And we contract 60 or 75 acres to harvest, harvest beets, and that beets is one of the hardest jobs in the farm, farm field. And I was, we were all city boy, we had no experience in farming, and tackling the hardest job in farming. It was very difficult; it was hard, it was really hard. And that's the time, living conditions, you go out Montana there, was just... your living quarters almost like a horse stable there, no insulation nothing, just a wood stove and bed. And that's... camp life was so easy that the mess hall was there for the food and you just have to go there when the bell rings to eat, but when you go outside, after you put in 10, 12 hour, come back, then you have to cook your own meal. That was very difficult and hard. That was a lesson, you know, to this day that you... it helped make me a stronger person, to be able to fight hard, hardship.

DC: So was everybody on the farm a Japanese American who came from a camp?

CM: No, they're not all, there's quite a few at that time, you know. Main project, big project was that farming was their main line. But all the ones that volunteered, they were not all farmers, they were a lot of, like us, city ones there and had a very hard time.

DC: So when you went to Montana, you were under contract, but were you basically released from the camp?

CM: Oh, yes. You are, but you have to go through all that channel there and every bus...they had a nurse, not a nurse but was army. Then on each bus take us to the depot, from the depots, go on the train, and every time you go through the, through a city, we had to pull our train shade down so the public won't see us.

DC: So when you got to Montana, were you under guard at the farm or were you free to...

CM: No, no, we were not under guard.

DC: So could you go where you wanted on your days off in Montana?

CM: Well, you're limited to that small area, there's no place to go in Montana, it's a wide open country, neighbors about 10 miles apart.

DC: We you required to stay there at the farm?

CM: Oh, yes.

DC: How long was your contract there?

CM: Contract was to finish your contract... that's the experience I had and I passed it on to the other younger generation. The work was hard, so the first week comes, we took a day off. And the second week we got a little stronger, we took a half a day off. So we lost day and a half. We had just one acre left to finish our contract, here comes the Canadian chinook storm, snow piled up 2 foot high. Because of the contract there we could not, we had to wait for that snow to melt off, thaw out, and to finish our contract or we won't be able to leave, we had to stay there. So that was a lesson that whenever you have any kind of job, forget the day off. You finish the job and take a day off after you finish. So that's a good experience through hardship that we learned and I pass it on to the younger generation, do your job first before you enjoy a day off.

DC: So when you finished your contract, I know the war ended pretty soon around that time...

CM: The war wasn't over then.

DC: So did you go back to Manzanar?

CM: Oh yes, we went right back to Manzanar. And we were happy to be back. [Laughs]

DC: Were you able to keep in touch with your family while you were there?

CM: Oh, yes.

DC: Could they visit you?

CM: Yeah, through the mail.

DC: Could they visit?

CM: No.

DC: Because they were too far away or because it wasn't...

CM: It's too far away.

DC: Did you feel very lonely?

CM: You feel lonely at the special occasion, on holidays, that's when the, even in camp family get together. When you're single and bachelor there you don't have that, that's when you miss, on holiday. On ordinary day, there's so many other activity going on, had no hard feelings there.

DC: So when exactly did you go to Montana and how long were you there?

CM: It was late April of '42 and left there in late May of '43.

DC: So you were there for more than one year?

CM: Yes.

DC: Wow.

DC: Yes, boy, I learned how to dig graves too, volunteer there... I buried, we buried the first six people that died in Manzanar. And we were called, there's the gravedigger group, that was us. But that volunteer ended because each block had their responsibility for that person that died in their block, so they had to take care of that. So every year there's a memorial service at Manzanar and there's a group of people that goes there. And I say well I got a couple of footprints I left behind.

DC: What did the people die of?

CM: Oh, the older ones there, quite a few died of cancer.. And we buried a lot of young kids.

DC: Really? Why did they die?

CM: Gosh, I have no idea. But they had a good hospital there. They had it set up nice.

DC: So you were part of a volunteer group that dug graves or it was part of your paid job at Manzanar?

CM: Well, it was a volunteer group, but they had no else to do the job. It was easy for us to do that. We did all kinds of odds and ends jobs there. And then each block took care of their own group. See, there was almost forty blocks and each block had sixteen barrack, I think.

DC: So your volunteer group was for your block?

CM: Well, we volunteered for the first, we were the beginning group there, we took care of the whole.

DC: And then later they developed one group per block?

CM: Right, so we didn't have to do that anymore.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2012 New Mexico JACL and Densho. All Rights Reserved.