<Begin Segment 12>

TI: And when you got to the camp, what was that like?

TO: I thought it was, it was not bad. It rained a lot in Arkansas, so it was about ten steps up, you know, they had the steps. But the first night there, it just poured. And so in order to get a, they had a mess hall, and it was only about ten feet away, but we had to get on a rowboat to get over to the mess hall. [Laughs]

TI: So it was kind of like having a river between the, your barracks and the mess hall?

TO: Yeah, because of that rain.

TI: That's, that's funny. And so it was more like a, just a hard rain? It was kind of almost like a flash flood type of thing?

TO: Thunder, lightning. It was terrible. [Laughs]

TI: So you weren't used to that kind of rain.

TO: No.

TI: And what were your living quarters like at Jerome?

TO: It was just one room like this, you know. No partition, nothing. And then these single beds, cots.

TI: And so when you were in Jerome, what kind of work did you do in Jerome?

TO: Well, I was taking care of the infants' milk, formulas.

TI: Okay, so it's kind of the same job you had in Santa Anita.

TO: Yeah, that's...

TI: And so when you did that, did you bring the formula, the milk, to the mothers in their barracks, or you just did it at the mess hall?

TO: At the mess hall, and there was a refrigerator there especially for these mothers, so they could come in and get their formulas and baby food. And, of course, during the day, we did that.

TI: And so how many babies were, were there? When you say you had to do this, I mean, was there...

TO: There weren't too many. Probably about twelve, fifteen.

TI: And when you, when you saw the mothers and gave them milk, how was it for them raising a baby in these kind of circumstances?

TO: It was hard for them, but they were very thankful that they were receiving the formulas, food for the babies.

TI: Yeah, so to have someone like you to help them with the milk was appreciated.

TO: Yes. I think the Japanese on the whole, everything, they were very thankful. It seemed like they didn't have any grudge against the U.S.

TI: Tell me, how was the food at Jerome?

TO: It was very good.

TI: So better than Santa Anita?

TO: Oh, a lot better. Oh, yes. We had a good cook, so that was, it was really nice.

TI: Describe some of the meals that you can remember, that you enjoyed at Jerome.

TO: Oh, we had meat, of course, and fish, vegetables, it was nice. The food was... and, of course, the director, I still remember his name, Taylor. Mr. Taylor. He really organized that place very well.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.