Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Toshiko Aiboshi Interview
Narrator: Toshiko Aiboshi
Interviewer: Richard Potashin
Location: Culver City, California
Date: January 20, 2011
Densho ID: denshovh-atoshiko-01-0012

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RP: Speaking of crafts, did you have any time to kind of creatively express yourself in camp?

TA: Oh yeah, well, we had one woman in our block who was very creative, and somehow we, our block had a Christmas tree, and she would have all the kids come to the mess hall and we would make decorations to put on that tree. And so we had one of the best decorated trees in all the camp, we thought.

RP: What do you recall about celebrating Christmas there? Besides the tree, were there gifts?

TA: I don't think we, I don't know what we did about that, but I do remember that any time I hear "White Christmas," it reminds me of camp because that was the year that that came out. It probably represents more of camp than any other song, other than maybe "Stardust" or something. But, and because he sang, "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas," right, so I could relate to that.

RP: Do you remember celebrating other holidays in camp? Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Halloween?

TA: I don't think we had turkey. [Laughs]

KP: Spam.

TA: But I don't remember celebrating much of turkey before the war either. [Laughs]

RP: How about the landscapes around the barracks in Amache? Do you recall gardens around your barrack or in the block that you lived in?

TA: There were trees, but I don't recall vegetable gardens or other things that has been attributed to some of the blocks, that people grew. But I don't think we did. All I remember are clotheslines that were there.

RP: Clotheslines grew pretty well.

TA: Yeah. But, and it turned out that in our block there was one family that had kind of a newborn child in terms of the baby was about maybe six months old, and they had gotten a washing machine through Sears and Roebuck or something, and somehow it got delivered. We thought, that was just, like, unheard of, that someone would have a washing machine in camp. But she didn't let anybody else use it. [Laughs]

RP: Did you wash clothes while you were there?

TA: Yeah, a washboard, which we never did before the war. And we used to have those hand wringers like this. It was nothing like that; it was like this. And when there was a dust storm it was awful because you had to rewash all the stuff over, and they did have dust storms quite often. We'd never, ever seen so much dust in all our lives. [Laughs]

RP: And the temperatures got down pretty low.

TA: Yeah, I think at one point it was sixteen degrees, and I don't recall, I was trying to think what we wore in clothing, but I think the boys had peacoats, but I can't remember what we wore in such terrible weather. But I don't think we ever missed a day of school unless we were really sick, and everybody made it.

RP: Did you have to attend the hospital for any reason or seek medical care?

TA: I did once because I had a ganglion, and they tried to remove it in camp and apparently that was successful. But other than that, I don't think so, although I did get, I think I got chicken pox once in camp and so I didn't go to school then. But that was kind of strange because I was told I had chicken pox earlier in my childhood and people didn't get it twice, but I did. [Laughs]

RP: Did they eventually have a library in the camp?

TA: Yes, they did, and it was a library of sorts, and one would say everybody's castoff books was the composition of the library. But such as it was, but I can't remember using it very often. There was a canteen, you know. I can't remember how much money we got when we were not working, but we got some kind of clothing allowance, I think, and you could tell, you'd say, "Oh, So-and-So is wearing that one. That must've come from the Montgomery Ward catalog 'cause I saw it in there, or I saw it in the Sears Roebuck catalog." And we had never, ever known what a catalog was in Los Angeles because we always went to a store to get something. I had no idea what a catalog was until we went to camp.

RP: Did you order anything from those catalogs in camp?

TA: Yeah.

RP: What did you order, just clothing?

TA: It was mostly clothing. And I don't think they had a store with clothing at the camp. I think they were just kind of, I don't, there were just candy bars or some little...

RP: Since you stayed with the, was it Yonemuras?

TA: Yoshimunes.

RP: Yoshimunes. Do you remember, what did they have in their room? Was, did it change over time, from the time that you guys first got there? Were there improvements made?

TA: Yeah, there were some cupboards, but certainly not drawers. I don't, I don't recall where we put the clothing or how we hung the clothes up, but I do know we had a radio because we used to listen to the Hit Parade. But that's all I recall.

RP: Did you have a space that was partitioned for, just specifically for you that you had some privacy?

TA: I don't recall that whatsoever. But I did have some place where I could study, so there must've been some kind of a flat area that I had books or something. But it must've been very, very crowded. But we had, we had to go get charcoal every day and we didn't, we learned, the people had these buckets because if they had to use the bathroom they didn't want to walk at night. 'Cause I don't know if we even had flashlights, how we got to the bathroom. Certainly not in the snow.

RP: Right. You had no sidewalks or paths. It was just...

TA: No.

RP: When it got wet it stayed wet. And school --

TA: I think it was better that we were in high school at the time and didn't know much better.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.