<Begin Segment 17>

RP: Let's talk a little bit about your experiences at Gila. How was life like at Gila, you mentioned that you had some issues with different groups that you didn't have any familiarity with. How was Gila compared to Heart Mountain, of course it was hotter, warmer?

JN: It was... after I got to know people and things I thought it was a lot better, it was a lot better. And people had gardens and there were trees and bushes and so that part of it was pretty good. And in Gila they set up a farm outside of the camp because a lot of the Japanese are farmers anyway so they raised crops outside of the camp, just a few miles outside of the camp. And so they raised fruits and vegetables there.

RP: One of the crops they raised was watermelons.

JN: Yeah, well, I thought I'd tell you about my watermelon story. As an eleven, twelve year old well, they had organized sports and stuff for the older people but for eleven, twelve year olds they didn't have anything. And a lot of the people that were older, they got either drafted, went into the army or they can get jobs outside of the camp that were on the interior. And they went to college, where colleges accepted them in the Midwest and East Coast. But when you are an eleven, twelve year old you couldn't do any of that. So about five of us decided that we heard there was a watermelon patch about a mile outside of the camp. So we're going to go to this watermelon patch and so two o'clock in the morning we went out, we dug a hole under the fence because the fence is electrically monitored so if you touch the fence the alarm goes off, see. And they had a barbed wire on the top anyway. And so what we did was the searchlight would go down and when it went up we would dig, up, went up, you dig 'til a hole was big enough under the fence. And then when it was big enough we would crawl under and when it was down, no, when it would crawl up, dig, go, crawl. [Laughs] So we did all this with the searchlight, monitoring the searchlight, you know. And then we finally went to the watermelon patch and in those days the watermelons, they didn't have seedless watermelons like they have now. They had black seeds around the outer edges and the heart was no seeds at all. So we broke the watermelon open and just ate the heart of the watermelon. [Laughs] And I think to this day it's probably the best watermelon I ever had, two o'clock in the morning it's cold too so it was tasty. And then we came back and we did the same thing, you had to watch the searchlight and then we didn't want anybody to know that we did this so we had to cover the hole up. So we watched the searchlight, cover the hole up and then the five of us said, we're not going to tell anybody, this is a secret for just the five of us. When you are eleven and twelve you had these secrets, you know. So that was the secret we were going to have. So I went back and went back to my barracks and went back in there and I snuck in and I went back to sleep and my brothers and sisters, mother and father, they didn't even know I left. And then I told them later on. [Laughs] It's crazy. We could've got shot, the soldiers, their orders were anybody that left the thing you would shoot 'em. So we could've got shot, maybe that's why the watermelon was so good. We got away with something. That's my watermelon story.

RP: That's great.

JN: And whenever I go to grammar schools, high schools, and colleges that's the one story they always remember is my watermelon story. [Laughs] 'Cause I wouldn't be alive here.

RP: What you do for a good watermelon. And you just did that once, that was the only time you ever snuck out of camp?

JN: Just one time, just one time.

RP: How did you take to the desert? Did it grow on you a little bit?

JN: No, sagebrush and --

RP: You know, the desert has its own interesting creatures out there. Did you run into rattlesnakes or scorpions or any of those type of things?

JN: Oh, yeah, they had all that. They had gila monsters too.

RP: Well, it's Gila River.

JN: Yeah, and they could hurt you. [Laughs] Yeah, it was not too good, so trying to escape and go out of camp was not too safe.

RP: What else do you remember about Gila?

JN: Well, grammar school I always remember the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag, in Gila we did the same thing and the same thing, all the teachers too. And Gila was a lot better I think than Heart Mountain in respect to the weather was a lot better and I think by that time they trusted the Japanese more and so the people were able to get passes to go into town and back. But if you are eleven years old you couldn't do that see.

RP: How did your mother do there?

JN: Huh?

RP: How did your mother do in that --

JN: No, my mother didn't really go anyplace.

RP: No, I mean how did she do in the new --

JN: New surroundings? It was pretty good. We made an arrangement and made a ramp and so she could go in and out, she could even go to the mess hall, she could go to the bathroom, everything like that. But my father still had to, you know, push her get there so in that respect it was a lot better.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.