Densho Digital Archive
Frank Abe Collection
Title: Frank Emi Interview I
Narrator: Frank Emi
Interviewers: Frank Abe (primary); Frank Chin (secondary)
Location: San Gabriel, California
Date: February 23, 1993
Densho ID: denshovh-efrank-02-0004

<Begin Segment 4>

FA: Can you give me just a quick -- Heart Mountain. Give me a quick description of what life was like there, dust and all. What was Heart... for those of us who weren't there.

FE: Well, it was a boring existence, to say the least. You had a chance to work at different jobs if you bid for it, and I worked at various jobs like truck driving. I worked in the road, road crew. I worked in the tofu factory. We made tofu at five in the morning, you know. And just myself and another older gentleman that was in the tofu business. We got up there and I used to make it for the camp. And...

FA: Did you make good, make good tofu?

FE: Oh, yeah, we made some good tofu there. Yeah, we ground up the soybeans, you know, and squeezed it out. Looked like milk, and then you add a little bit calcium chloride to solidify it.

FA: Not the ideal conditions for making tofu there in a dusty Wyoming camp?

FE: No, but the barracks was pretty well-sealed. Make sure that nothing got into that particular area there.

FA: And it tasted like...

FE: It tasted like real tofu. Fact, I used to bring home samples, you know, and I used to take some over to Jack Nishimoto, my friend, you know. [Laughs] Not knowing that he was there spying on me. [Laughs]

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 1993, 2005 Frank Abe and Densho. All Rights Reserved.