<Begin Segment 18>
TI: So first, okay, we go to Fresno, then which, which camp did you go to first?
EN: Jerome, after that.
TI: So Jerome, Arkansas.
EN: And then Rohwer.
TI: And then Rohwer after that. But let's talk about Jerome first. When you got to Jerome, Arkansas, what did you think? I mean, what did it look like when you got there?
YN: Like an army camp, with black barracks, all the same kind of barracks. We saw the tower with, I guess they were army people, with guns just standing up there. I remember that.
TI: And for the family, so you have this large family, how did you guys stay together as a family? I mean, you slept in...
YN: Barrack.
EN: Single cots.
TI: And how much of a barrack, did they just give you a single room, or did they give you a double room?
EN: Double. We had to have two rooms. But we were just sleeping right next to each other.
TI: And then for meals, you would go to the mess hall.
EN: Uh-huh.
TI: And would you all eat together as a family?
EN: No. We had to take turns, because the little ones needed more attention than the older ones. We had to help the little ones.
TI: Oh, so you guys went in shifts, kind of. So tell me, how would, when you didn't, not together, so who would go the first, the first group?
EN: Well, you could go all together, but we can't sit all together, there were so many of us.
TI: But when you did go to the mess hall, did you try to sit together as a family, though?
EN: Uh-huh.
TI: Because I've talked to other people, and they say sometimes, especially the teenagers, would go off and eat with their friends. And then kind of that family feeling kind of went away because of that. But it sounds like your family, they pretty much stayed together?
EN: Yeah, together.
TI: And how did that work? I mean, was it because your parents wanted that, or you just, as a family, felt that that was the way to do it?
EN: Well, that's how we lived. [Laughs]
YN: We stuck together.
EN: Then my father worked in the (kitchen) washing those pots and pans.
YN: In the kitchen.
EN: For a while, I worked as a...
YN: Waitress.
EN: Waitress.
TI: Oh, in the mess hall you would do that?
EN: After I graduated.
<End Segment 18> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Watsonville - Santa Cruz JACL. All Rights Reserved.