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RP: And you had, at Amache you had regular schools, right?

TA: Yes.

RP: You didn't go to school in a barrack, did you?

TA: One whole block was designated as the school, and so they did have, I don't know if they used barracks as classrooms or what. I don't recall. But there was an auditorium. And if it were a block, it would make sense that perhaps instead of a mess hall they would've used that as an auditorium, I don't know.

RP: And the auditorium was used, was it used for the entire camp as well as the school?

TA: I don't recall any meeting of, I know that the managers of each block met occasionally, but I don't know where they met, whether it was with the administration or what. But the block managers were called block heads. [Laughs]

RP: That was pretty universal.

TA: Yes.

RP: Do you remember your block manager in 8-K?

TA: For a while it was Mr. Oiye, and then it was Mr. Hayashi after a while, after that. But then, I don't think there was much communication about what was happening. Our block was certainly not a hotbed of activity other than what was going on, so we didn't need to know what was going on at other blocks.

RP: Do you recall any recreation equipment, or did your, a lot of blocks at Manzanar had a little basketball court nailed onto...

TA: Yeah, we had, yeah, and my husband remembers playing football, 'cause he was very athletic. And he was saying one time there was a fight, and he said he was, he had to tackle somebody because they were going to get away. [Laughs] So he remembers that, but I wasn't watching at that time. But he was athletic. He also played baseball. And I was a klutz.

RP: No sports?

TA: No. But there was a ping pong table in our recreation area, and then there was also, we were very lucky that one of the younger guys had a turntable and he had a great collection of records that he would play for dances and things. And I think he said he still had some of those records from that, and I don't know where he got the money to do that. I think he worked in the mess hall and used the money to buy records. So that was an unusual thing for somebody to have that in the block, but that was because we had so many kids. So certain songs that I hear I associate with camp.

RP: Remind you of...

TA: Or right after the war. 'Cause in high school years, I think people relate to music and it identifies different eras, so we were in that era, that particular one. And so if you hear some of Glenn Miller, I think of camp.

RP: Right. Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman.

TA: Right.

RP: So did you have any difficulty resettling into, quote, "mainstream life" after camp?

TA: Well, because I was with the Yoshimunes, and then they very quickly got that position, and started school in September, so I don't know what happened between June and September, where we lived, although I think we may have stayed at the church for a couple of days or something, before they got that other job. But the church continued after...

<End Segment 13> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.