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Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Aya Fujii - Taka Mizote Interview
Narrators: Aya Fujii - Taka Mizote
Interviewer: Richard Potashin
Location: Portland, Oregon
Date: July 22, 2010
Densho ID: denshovh-faya_g-01-0011

<Begin Segment 11>

RP: This is tape two of a continuing interview with Taka and Aya, and we were discussing your arrival at the Portland Assembly Center. And Taka, what was your first impression when you saw that you'd actually be living where you had taken a field trip?

TM: Well, I was aghast because of the numbers of people and having to find our quarters to live in and orders were just saying do this, you know, you got to get your... giving us directions of what each of us should do. It was just overwhelming.

RP: How about you, Aya?

AF: Well, it was about the same, we were helped off the bus by the sentries I remember and, I mean, they were in uniform with the... I can't remember whether they had a rifle or not but that's probably the first time I've ever seen an army uniform. And when we were ushered to where we were to stay, I remember this canvas door and there was nothing on top and I just remember just looking around and thought you know, didn't think much about is this where we're going to live. But like I said, it was mass confusion for me, yes.

RP: Now, Taka, you were three years older than your younger sister, were you aware of the fact that you were an American citizen, did you have any sense --

TM: Those thoughts didn't occur to me, I just, at that time I just knew we had to be there and we were given orders to get settled here, this is going to be your place to live for a while and so it was a very overwhelming knowing how to do it.

RP: That was the most immediate concern, how do we?

TM: How do we do it and our parents, they were, I mean, from living in a spacious farm and home.

RP: So how did you do it for three weeks?

TM: Well, I think we were... it was easier for us because right away they had... it was pretty well organized, the people that were there, they had people that were doing mess hall duties and they had started school and so these announcements came over the loudspeaker all the time. I mean, you know, telling us where all the activities were taking place and all that.

AF: I think we were probably one of the last groups to go into camp. I don't know when the first groups went but they had already established leaders and probably people that had to welcome us and told us where to go. They were the camp leaders I guess, as far as the sentries, I mean, they just kind of ushered us in and that was it.

TM: And we were surrounded on the outside they were surrounded by sentries anyway.

RP: Can you describe the assembly center to us, how it was laid out? Or where were you in the camp?

TM: Well, how big was each, I would call them cells, you know, it wasn't very big and like Aya says, it was canvas door and then we had to go to the latrines and showers and I mean we had to walk quite a ways to go to these facilities.

AF: They had, as far as meals were concerned, they had this bugler that announced when the first shift was eating and they sounded when it was their time to be over and I can't remember what the bugler's song, tune was but I've heard it and every time I hear it it reminds me of that meal time. And I remember eating Vienna sausage and I waitressed for one week I think and I still have the... my paycheck.

RP: Now you're coming from a very isolated situation living on a farm in a community that had very few Japanese Americans and suddenly you're thrust into a camp with thousands.

TM: Yes, right.

RP: How did you react to that?

TM: Well, as a teenager I thought well, this is not bad.

AF: But if you saw your friends then it was more fun, you know.

RP: Did you try to find your friends?

TM: Well, right, I knew a few before but not ....

RP: Well, now they basically hastily put this camp together, you know, you're right on the dirt where there had been manure and animals and that type of thing. I heard stories about outbreaks of flies?

TM: The stench.

AF: The whitewashed walls that had animal hair coming through, you know, I remember that.

RP: Were there any other sight, sounds, or smells that you'll forever remember about where --

AF: No, but you can hear the sound because they didn't have a roof, you know, I mean, it was all open stall so you could hear music, you know, and things like that coming through.

TM: Absolutely no, hardly any privacy, you know.

RP: What was the experience like for you going to the latrine which also was a very impersonal?

TM: Oh, yes, very much.

RP: A communal situation.

TM: Yes, it was just, you know, no privacy.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.