Densho Digital Archive - George M. Yoshino Interview (denshovh-ygeorge

<Begin Segment 13>

TI: So from Pinedale, which was hot, then you go to Tule Lake. What was Tule Lake like? What were your first impressions of Tule Lake?

GY: Tule Lake? Well, as far as temperature goes, it wasn't much cooler. It was a bigger, bigger camp. It was about the same feeling, only different location.

TI: And at Tule Lake, you have people from different parts of the country, like a lot of people from California. So what were your impressions of these different communities that you came in contact with?

GY: Oh, I don't know. I don't think there was too much difference. I had no trouble with anybody as far as that goes. I don't think anybody did. So that's how it went.

TI: And so what, did you have a job at Tule Lake?

GY: Tule Lake, that's something else. When we applied for a job, I applied for a job, there's three classifications. Beginners, professional and so on and so forth. So I went there, I gave a big song and dance that I knew everything about woodworking. 'Cause we had to make chairs and stuff for the dining hall and stuff like that, so I thought, "Okay, I'll go get a job there." And I told 'em everything I knew, power machining and everything. And the sticker was I told 'em I always know what a wood stretcher was. There is no such thing. But because I had experience in high school, that I was making a pair of skis, and I cut the board too short. So the guy (told the instructor to tell me) to go to the lumberyard and get a board stretcher." So I started to go, they laughed like hell. It was just a joke. So I told the recruiter at camp that I knew all about a wood stretcher. So I got a job at nineteen dollars an hour -- nineteen dollars a month. [Laughs]

TI: So because you kind of knew the wood stretcher was a joke?

GY: Yeah.

TI: Then he knew that you knew enough about, about woodworking.

GY: Yeah, that's what I told him. So I got the job, but I never did work in the shop. 'Cause in the meantime, we were allowed to go out to work on the farm, which I did. So I never did work in the carpentry shop.