<Begin Segment 22>

TI: Okay. So let's talk about getting moved from Jerome to Tule Lake.

KM: Uh-huh.

TI: So when you arrive at Tule Lake, describe, describe your first impressions at Tule Lake.

KM: Tule Lake was, oh, it was one of the older buildings, we had to move into that tarpaper barrack. That was a letdown, because in Jerome, gee, we had nice facilities, because it was the last one built. But when we moved in there, it wasn't even finished yet. They were still working on the toilets and the bathroom and the shower room.

TI: This was at Jerome?

KM: Jerome, yeah.

TI: Okay, so they're still constructing it.

KM: Yeah, and then we moved into Tule Lake and you see the old framed assembly center barracks with a tarpaper on the outside, and wow, what a letdown.

TI: So the facilities at Tule Lake were not as good as Jerome?

KM: Right, uh-huh.

TI: When you first got to Tule Lake and you had to be sort admitted or registered, was that process different than when you say --

KM: No, it's the same process, yeah. 'Course, they had soldiers over there going through your baggage, they had an Indian guy, "Aw, go ahead," he says. They didn't inspect anything.

TI: Okay. So in terms of where you lived, so you got one of the older barracks.

KM: Right.

TI: Tell me who else lived around you. Do you remember what block you were in, and the other people that were around you?

KM: Oh, no, I don't remember what block I was in. I think it was 18, and we were right there by a police station, substation, and a dental office. And people were there from Stockton, when we moved there, there were people from Stockton, yeah. Pretty well-known family from Stockton was there.

TI: Now, were they, did they come from a different camp also, or were they there initially?

KM: I think they came from another camp, I don't know which camp. Then we ran into a family from Washington, the Matsunaga family from Washington.

TI: And so the people in, say, your block, would you say they all came from different camps, or was there a mixture of some people who were there previously and some people who came?

KM: Uh-huh. Yeah, there was people that were there from previous, and, of course, we came along, too, yeah.

TI: So at Tule Lake, they had the same situation where people have answered the questionnaire. And then they offered those who did "yes-yes" to leave Tule Lake.

KM: Yeah.

TI: But some of them actually stayed.

KM: Yeah, a lot of 'em stayed at Tule. They didn't want to move.

TI: Right. So in your block, were there people who signed "yes-yes" but just decided to stay?

KM: No, I think most of 'em left. A lot of 'em wouldn't say how they signed. That's when they got moved, and then the people knew they were "yes-yes" or "no-no." That Tule was big.

TI: Yeah, it was, I think it reached, like, 18,000, or like twice the size of... or maybe three times the size of Jerome.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2010 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.