Densho Digital Archive
Steven Okazaki Collection
Title: Chizuko Iyama - Ernie Iyama Interview
Narrators: Chizuko Iyama, Ernie Iyama
Location: El Cerrito, California
Date: December 11, 1983
Densho ID: denshovh-ichizuko_g-01-0003

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EI: So even in Tanforan, I got elected in the council which we'd never would've gotten ordinarily because you know, we were looked at as, you know, Communists and so forth, you know, they call us all kinds of names, and then that carried over into the camp, too. So we had progressive people in the camp, too. I got onto the council which made it a little bit easier, I think, for the people in there because we weren't afraid to say things to the administration, you know. To get whatever we thought should be done for the people. So, that I think was different from other camps, you know. At least I think that. See, I became a city, well, another thing was when I walked into the camp, here was this guy, Art Eaton, he was going to school with me at Cal, you know, so immediately, when I walked in, he said, "Hey, how about working for me?" See, he was in housing, that's why I got into housing right away. And we had to fight with them all the way on that. This, this is another thing about the camps . The camps weren't already built. They built them as we came in and they were just barely keeping up. And if it rained or something, they got behind, see, and that's the reason why when Santa Anita group came in, they didn't have the roof on yet and they said it was gonna rain that night. And so we asked the administration to put these people in where the school was because school block, see, they're all in blocks, you know. So many people in a block. And so we asked to put them in the school and they said no, because school is in the center, they want to keep it in the center. And I said, "Well, you can ask them to move out again. And after the roof's up, you know, for a day or two, let them stay in there." And they said, "No, once they get in there, they won't move." So we said, "Well, what difference does it make? Because it's only one block away and people are walking all day in the camp anyway. So what difference does it make if they walk one more block?" [Laughs] But they wouldn't do it, so they moved these people in and then that night, it did rain, and people who had babies and things like that, so we had to commandeer trucks and things like that and we put them in the hospital. But even there, we had, we had trouble with the doctors, because we had to fight them, you know.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 1983, 2010 Densho and Steven Okazaki. All Rights Reserved.