Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Doris Nitta Interview
Narrators: Doris Nitta
Interviewer: Richard Potashin
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Date: August 10, 2010
Densho ID: denshovh-ndoris-01-0017

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RP: This is a continuation of an oral history interview with Doris Taketa and this is tape three. Doris, we were talking about some of your experiences at the facility in Rohwer, and did you go out and did you escape to capture fireflies there too?

DT: No, I guess maybe there were there but I guess the season must have been different, I don't know, because I guess maybe we outgrew that. I don't know, maybe I outgrew it.

RP: Were there any differences or changes in living in Rohwer and Jerome in terms of the food or the latrines or did it feel different to you?

DT: It was the same between Jerome and Rohwer.

RP: How about school in Rohwer?

DT: Yes, I went to sophomore in Rohwer and it was the same.

RP: Did you also have mostly Japanese American teachers there or did you also see Caucasian teachers?

DT: I think some were more Caucasians I think because I can't remember too much. I remember way back but....

RP: Did your mother or father take up any hobbies while they were in camp?

DT: Oh, my mother was... my father went outside and got those... in Jerome he got those barks and he took the... no, the branches and took the bark and he polished it and made a cane and vases. And my mother in Jerome, she... you folded the crepe paper certain way and then she drew this great big crane and then she pasted the crepe paper red and white and black, it was just gorgeous and they wanted to put it in the Smithsonian but by then... well, we didn't put it in the glass case like a shadow box. If we did that it would've been preserved but we just had it just plain and then all the crepe paper fell off. Mary Tsukamoto asked me and she said she wanted to take it the Smithsonian because she was really impressed but it was gone by then.

RP: Was it just... was it in your barrack room? Where was it kept?

DT: In the barrack and then we brought it home. She made it in Jerome but it was really a nice piece of artwork.

RP: Now Mary Tsukamoto was in Jerome?

DT: Yes, and then she went, I can't remember where they went. When they left Jerome I don't know where they went. We went to Rohwer.

RP: Do you remember since she was very well-educated and she was kind of involved in the community, do you know what she did in Jerome or Fresno? Was she an organizer or did she help in any way with the transition to camp?

DT: She must have, she must have done a lot. But I wasn't aware of it but I know she is not a type of person to just sit back and so I'm sure she was always involved in things.

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