<Begin Segment 16>

TI: So when you got to Fresno, what was it like? You were, like, one of the first ones there.

NM: When I came back?

TI: No, when you got to the assembly center, Fresno, you volunteered?

NM: When I went in?

TI: Yeah, when you went in, what did it look like?

NM: I looked at it, everything was bad. The barrack, there's, they call it section, they call it. A, B, A to K. And then I could show you something on... and then, you know, that track, horse race? All the section was in there, and there's another half mile block. There's Butler Avenue, they got another half mile block on the other side of that Butler Avenue. And there were about two camps in there. So they were all together, A to K. Section A, B, C, D. That G was the warehouse. The one that, oh, the section, five hundred in the section. And then there's a, in the middle, there were twenty, ten and ten, one to twenty, all in here. There was five hundred people in that section. And then two or three meal, two meals, two hundred fifty each shift. Breakfast, noon, and night. And then we volunteered, so had to feed the first group. So that's why we were in there, and then we did that. And then the next group come in, they make up their own chef and all that, get your own worker like that. So it was all Japanese, nobody from outside came in, yeah. That's why I felt safer. I felt real safe when I went in there. I was afraid outside, yeah. I thought I'd never be afraid and they won't do nothing, but I was afraid. Because when they, they shot at somebody, you know, and then, god, you can't tell who you're gonna talk to, police? Nobody was our friend.

TI: So at the assembly center, what was your job?

NM: My job? There was all kinds of job. My job at first as a kitchen helper. That's how I got in. Eight dollar a month, I got, yeah. And then I was a dishwasher. There's unskilled labor, so I got eight dollar a month, skilled labor got ten, and the professional get twelve or something like that. Then when you went to relocation center in Jerome, they got nineteen, sixteen, and twelve. They went higher. Twelve, sixteen, and nineteen, yeah. And that's per month. Then, of course, when we were assembly center, they gave us a jacket. Montgomery order Montgomery, you could get a jacket, mackinaw jacket or something. So we got that without paying anything, yeah.

TI: And then the other thing you did at the assembly center was the baseball team?

NM: Yeah.

TI: So how did the baseball team get started?

NM: They organized that baseball team. See, once they get set, they have sporting head, they form maybe volleyball tournament, or baseball. So each athlete, baseball player, Zenimura, they come up and they said they wanted to make a diamond. "Okay, you make it." We went out there to help 'em with a shovel, and that was a hay field. It can't be done. It'll take you too long to do, shovel it. Get some plowing machine... so Zenimura and Yoshikawa, Tsukimura, they're the big ones, the heads, they went to the manager to see if we can get some equipment, buy tractor. We're gonna level that off in no time, if the farmer's willing to work on it. Said, "Okay," so they got a tractor, leveler, and then we went with that. We made two diamonds, baseball. Zenimura, all, they're always right on. Zenimura's the one that made the baseball. He's one of the best ones, yeah. And then he went to Arizona. We went to Arkansas, that was the separation we got. But I didn't stay long anyway.

TI: But, so who, who did, who played baseball?

NM: Okay. There's Elk Grove, lot of people want Elk Grove. And Lodi, Florin. I think Lodi was not... I think it was Florin, yeah. Florin people came in in a group, and they had a strong baseball team, yeah. So they formed that, so districts, we got about six or seven team, anyway. A Team and then B Team and C Team, too. So we had about two diamonds made, yeah. And then with that equipment, we had leveling off, cutting everything out, leveling off, it was done fast, right away we finished, yeah. So I got the map for you, too, if you want to see it. I'll give it to you.

TI: But it sounds like, then, all day, people were playing baseball games every day?

NM: Every day somebody's playing, yeah. We got A, B, C, yeah. And then basketball, too, basketball, we got A, B, C, and then we had girls' basketball tournaments like that, yeah, leagues. We stayed there six months. From May to November 3rd, six months, we stayed. That was the longest. Usually three months is about the longest you stayed. But we were wondering why we were, they don't announce where we were going. So we didn't know until it was the last month, September came, then late September, they announced it, that it's gonna be Jerome, Arkansas. [Laughs] So we had a newspaper office, too, it's all run by Japanese, you know. Nobody from outside is in there. Only guys that's, officer is from within that. So it made it safe, yeah. You didn't have to worry about other hakujin coming in or anybody. So lot of 'em, we know the guys. [Laughs]

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2010 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.