<Begin Segment 14>

RP: So what did you for recreation in Heart Mountain?

JN: Well, I played marbles.

RP: Where did you play marbles? On the dirt or did you find a nice cement area?

JN: On the dirt, no, it was all on dirt, everything was dirt there wasn't any cement anywhere.

RP: What kind of marble games did you play as a kid?

JN: Oh, we played keeps and we played hide away and stuff like that. And there's all the other people that brought marbles there. And actually they had other things too because we were able to buy things, through Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward and what was... but most of the people didn't have enough money to buy things so we couldn't buy too much.

RP: What did you remember buying?

JN: I don't remember buying anything really. My parents bought things and my older brothers bought things but I didn't buy anything. And we couldn't have radios, you weren't allowed to have radios or cameras so you know. And everything that came in that had to be searched so to me it was a prison.

RP: You had an opportunity to learn judo in the camp. Tell us a little bit about that.

JN: Oh it was... I never heard of it before because I grew up in a Caucasian community and so that was a Japanese culture that I never knew anything about. And so it was a good experience and I found that it was amazing how a person can do things with their body and protect themselves.

RP: And as you mentioned early that was important later on in life when you came out of camp.

JN: Oh, yeah, when I went back to high school.

RP: So did you just of your own interest become a judoist in camp?

JN: In camp I continued being judo and there and in fact they have colored belts, the best belt you can have is a black belt. So I had a green belt for young kids, you're one of the better ones of the young kids so I had a green belt, worked my way up to a green belt. And when you first start it's a white belt.

RP: Where was judo held in Heart Mountain?

JN: They had a recreation hall where they had it.

RP: I hope you had some mats down on the floor there.

JN: Yeah, they had mats, they took care of us pretty good.

RP: Then you talked about your mother being confined to the wheelchair and that created a situation during the wintertime that forced you to transfer to another camp. Can you share those details with us?

JN: Well, in Heart Mountain my mother was basically confined to the room 'cause, it was pretty terrible. And when we moved to Gila River, Arizona, we talked to them and we were able to build a ramp from the door to the ground so she was able at least get outside. And in Heart Mountain it was too cold to go outside anyway. So that part was okay and so it was a lot better in Gila River, Arizona, for my mother. And while I was in Heart Mountain my father had to do, you know, take all... do all the bathroom work for her, you know. She had to do all her potty work right there in the room and father took her to the toilet and did all that. So my father did a lot of work in the camp taking care of my mother.

RP: That was a pretty much a full time job right there.

JN: Oh, yeah.

RP: Did he also have another job in camp?

JN: My father didn't work at all. My older brother did, he worked in the hospital.

RP: Yoshio?

JN: Yeah.

RP: Hospital orderly?

JN: Yeah, he was an orderly in the hospital.

RP: And so he would be --

JN: But the rest... nobody else worked, he was the only one that worked.

RP: How did you keep warm on those cold winter days in Heart Mountain?

JN: You didn't, you didn't keep warm, it's just terrible, couldn't hardly sleep. I've never seen so many beds close to a fire. [Laughs] It was pretty bad.

RP: What type of heating did you have in your room?

JN: It was a coal stove and that was one of my chores, that was one of the chores they gave me. I had to go get all the coal and bring it in there and keep the fire going all the time.

RP: Did they have a coal pile in your block?

JN: Yeah, I had to make sure that... I had to make sure that it never went out because my mother was there, see. So I had to keep that thing going day and night, used to keep that thing going and going and going.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.