<Begin Segment 28>

TI: So when you go into your, your barracks and your bed, describe...

NH: Oh, it was a, it was a big room, and all of us were just lined up. The beds were just lined up and everybody had a bed and a little bit of space next to 'em, that's all.

TI: And so what was going through your mind when you walked in that room?

NH: I said, "Wow, so this is where, okay, I'm gonna be living here for a while. What a strange place." Then after I set my stuff down, first thing I did was I said, "Where's the bathroom?" so I know where that is. "Where do we go eat?" Well, we go eat someplace. They were all, but the guys, they were all very nice to me.

TI: So describe the, when you say the "guys" around there, who were the "guys"?

NH: Well, there was, well, they were all older than I was, mostly Isseis. There were some Peruvians, Peru, the Japanese people from Peru came, who were, I don't know why they ever got there, but they did in that great big mix up. And they were there, and that was it.

TI: Did you recognize anyone from Berkeley?

NH: Well, the only, only person there that I knew was Reverend Tana, and he was our minister here in the Berkeley Temple.

TI: Oh, so that must have been comforting to see him.

NH: Well, he was somewhere else. I didn't know where he was, but he was someplace else. But I mean, I would see him and then we would talk, and then I knew, well, at least there's somebody I know.

TI: You said the other guys were friendly. Describe...

NH: Well, they were, you know, they said, "Well, this is what you do, this is where you go. When you go to eat, we'll go together and you can learn how to do that." And we all went to the dining room and ate there, which was very good. They had real good food.

TI: And in terms of communication with the other inmates there, how did you communicate with them? What language did you communicate in?

NH: I think we mostly spoke in English, yeah. Oh, no, there was one man, he only spoke Japanese so I spoke Japanese to him.

<End Segment 28> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Topaz Museum. All Rights Reserved.