Densho Digital Archive
Watsonville - Santa Cruz JACL Collection
Title: Nancy Iwami Interview
Narrator: Nancy Iwami
Interviewer: Megan Asaka
Location: Watsonville, California
Date: July 29, 2008
Densho ID: denshovh-inancy-01-0016

<Begin Segment 16>

MA: So going back a little bit, did you work in camp that year? Did you have a job?

NI: Yes, I worked as a, what do you call it... waitress at first, and then someone said, "Why don't you be a dietician?" So I didn't know anything, but she said, "This is all you do," and so that's what I did, in the kitchen.

MA: And what did you do as a dietician?

NI: Oh, fix food for people who had stomach problem or couldn't have salt, and then made a little snack for the little children in between breakfast and... I mean, was it lunch and dinner? I can't remember.

MA: Did Charlie work also? Did Charlie work in camp?

NI: Oh, yes, he worked in the... what did he call it, anyway? Oh dear, I can't remember. But he worked, maybe helping unload things that come into the warehouse. He worked in the warehouse and then he, at one time, the government wanted people to make camouflage nets, and he worked there until they finished all the job that was required. That paid. The government paid, I don't know how much. But we, we in the kitchen were getting sixteen dollars a month. And I think the doctors were getting eighteen dollars.

MA: So I know that Poston was built on a Native American reservation?

NI: Yes, it was on an Indian reservation, the only camp on an Indian reservation. And as they say, the land was real fertile but no water. Japanese went and built this canal, helped build the canals, and they brought water into the land. They even built a swimming pool there for the kids. As long as there was water, that land was so fertile, that these vegetables just sprouted because of the good, warm weather. So that's what they say, I was gone already, but I know the watermelons that were growing then, that year. My husband would say, "You throw the seeds in the ground, and two, three days you think you hid those seeds, but they sprout right away." [Laughs]

MA: Did you ever come into contact with any of the Native Americans living around those areas? Did they work in camp or anything like that?

NI: I don't, I really didn't go out. In fact, I did go to the Colorado River with the kitchen crew (...) one day we're going on a picnic, and we went to the Colorado River. Other than that, I did not venture out at all. So I, I don't know too much about camp life. But I know they had talent shows, they built a little theater-like, not too far from our... well, what is that place, area, block. And so all that night people would just come marching through, and in the winter, they would bring little cans with coal in it, so they can keep (warm) -- it got cold in the winter. Can you believe that? We had icicles in Poston, I remember that. It got that cold. And so they'd bring blankets and that little bucket of coal and a little stool to sit on, talent show. There were some talented people, but I didn't stay too long, so I'm sorry I can't tell you all those things.

MA: Oh, that's okay.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright ©2008 Densho and the Watsonville - Santa Cruz JACL. All Rights Reserved.