<Begin Segment 17>

RP: Can you tell us a little bit more about the camp that you lived in? What was the eating arrangements like there?

KY: You mean from, at the farm?

RP: At the big, the big camp building that you lived in?

KY: Oh, you mean Manzanar?

RP: Oh, no, no.

KY: Farm?

RP: The labor camp, yeah.

KY: Yeah. Well, it was, it was simple beds that you slept on. And there was a central dining room so, where you went to eat dinner. And then in the morning we went there to pick up the lunch that they prepared for us. And you'd take your lunch and go to work. Yeah, it was a very simple thing. And...

RP: So who ran the camp? Do you know?

KY: I don't know who ran the camp. All I know is I got something to eat there. [Laughs]

RP: So you spent a little money in Pocatello, but you brought some money home with you?

KY: Yeah, uh-huh. Yeah. But I bought some clothes.

RP: Good.

[Interruption]

RP: This tape three of a continuing interview with Kaz Yamamoto. And Kaz, we were just talking about your first experience on the farm, picking potatoes. And overall, was it, how was it for you?

KY: I enjoyed it. It was, it was a lot of hard labor but it was, it was great to be out there where you could on Sundays or Saturdays or Sundays have, being able to go to the movies. That was entertainment for us. But you know, an incident happened when we went to that place. We went to town and we usually have to hitchhike to town. It was a little ways from the camp we were in. And we hitchhiked into town so we can go see a movie. But before we went to the movies we stopped in this restaurant to have somethin', get a bite to eat. And when we came out of the movie house, here was this guy, he said he was the sheriff. He says, "Did you guys go to that restaurant to eat?" And we said, "Yeah, we sure did." He says, "Well, and you stopped at this restaurant to have something to eat," and he accused us of stealing knives. I'm sure he's talkin' about the knives, regular fork and knife. He accused us of stealing the knives there and my friend, who was with us, said, "I want to speak to the sheriff." And the guy peels off his... "I'm the sheriff." So here he was accusing us of stealing the knives and he couldn't prove it because we didn't have any knives. So he had to let us go. But that was a bad incident for us, accusing us of stealing knives. That and the fact that we went by a barbershop and the guy who was standing outside says, "No, we don't, we don't cut you guys hair." So he's warning us don't come into the, my shop, we won't give you a haircut. So those are the two ugly incidents that happened when we were out in Pocatello.

RP: Pocatello. Do you recall if there were women that went out on those furloughs, too?

KY: Huh?

RP: Were there women who also went out to pick...

KY: Potatoes?

RP: ...potatoes and...

KY: Not that I know of. But I know there were. Yeah. I met this couple and they worked on the farm too, they said. But I never met anybody where we were.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.