Densho Digital Archive - John Nakada Interview (denshovh-njohn-01-0013)

<Begin Segment 13>

RP: You were just beginning to share with us how cold that first winter was. Can you give us some details? What do you remember most about that winter?

JN: Well I remember that our barracks were located about two blocks from where we took a shower and went to the bathroom. And I still remember I had a crew cut, short hair and I took a shower and by the time I got back to the barracks I flicked my hair and it was icicles, that's how cold it was. And I couldn't imagine that could happen but when it's cold, I guess it could happen. But that's a memory that I still remember very vividly, very very vividly.

RP: Did you experience snow while you were there?

JN: Oh, yeah, they had snow and the wind was terrible. It's south of Yellowstone National Park so it's out in the middle of the desert and the wind just blows and it's cold and it gets dusty 'cause they had to clear it off to put the barracks in the camp. So it was dusty and muddy and it was terrible. And I just didn't like it at all there and you couldn't go anyplace, you're confined in the camp itself and so it was terrible and we still had to go to school.

RP: And what was school like at Heart Mountain?

JN: The school was, the school I went to in grammar school was small, few grades. Here it was just one grade and there were forty, fifty people like in one grade. And they had a teacher that, you know, that taught us and that was just a different experience and then I found that I had a hard time in school because the competition was real terrible. I guess lot of the people are pretty smart, I felt I wasn't that smart so I had to really study to even get by. So that's what I experienced in the school, it was terrible.

RP: Was there any particular teachers that stood out in your mind, either positively or negatively?

JN: Well, the positive thing is they had a few teachers that were Japanese that were they were teachers before camp. And that's the first time I remember both in Heart Mountain and in Gila, is most of the teachers there were from the peace organizations that were against the war and so they were Quakers, lot of Quaker teachers. And then people from the Amish country in Pennsylvania, I don't know if you heard of them, but they were peace oriented too and those two organizations didn't think that was right for us to be put in camp because they were against war. And so as an eleven, twelve year old I never heard of peace organizations but that's the first experience I had with peace organizations so that was a learning experience for me, that was amazing.

RP: Did that influence you later on in life?

JN: Well, I just had a lot of respect for them. You know, what could you do? And the one thing I remember about school is we were in a concentration camp but every morning we had to say the pledge of allegiance to the flag even being in a concentration camp. You know, the words to the pledge allegiance to the flag? it's crazy. [Laughs] So I still remember that very vividly.

RP: You felt that as a twelve, thirteen year old.

JN: Yeah.

RP: The irony of --

JN: Honoring the flag and honoring America and being in a concentration camp.

RP: And wouldn't that have been one of the values that your parents had instilled in you?

JN: Well, I just, you know, I used the word shigata ga nai, can't be helped, it's there and things like that. And the thing I really didn't like is there's no freedom, you couldn't go any place, that was pretty bad.