<Begin Segment 20>

RP: How about the latrines?

SK: Oh, those were, those were something. Yeah, it's like military type. You didn't have any privacy. 'Cause it was open bay as far as the shower bays go. So you learned, I mean, you couldn't be bashful, that's for sure, if you were gonna take a shower. I remember the floors were all concrete. But, yeah, they, that latrine was probably, well, it wasn't too, I don't know the distance. It wasn't too far away from the barrack, I mean, the home or whatever.

RP: Did you, do you recall the toilets having partitions at some point, later on in camp?

SK: Yeah, you know that's, that's the thing. I think there were partitions but I don't remember when they came up. Because, in fact, in our building that we lived in, I remember we kids were on the end of the building. There was a partition and then there was another partition... I think we had, I'm trying to remember if there were two partitions. And my parents were on the other side of one of them. I'm trying to think if we had three sections later on.

RP: You mean three separate rooms? Or...

SK: Yes.

RP: Or just one room divided by partitions?

SK: Well one room divided by partitions. That's what I'm thinking because it sure seemed like we, we were, our, all us kids were on one side and our parents were on another side and there was one other section. But I can't be sure.

RP: Do you recall what your room looked like later on in camp? Were there efforts made to improve the appearance of your room? Curtains, furniture, radios... did you see any kind of change in the overall look of that barrack?

SK: Yeah, well, this is the thing. We did get, we had curtains, I remember. We had linoleum on the floor. I think it was a red colored linoleum, kind of red or maroon. But I kind of remember that. And we also had, I thought we had sheetrock, but on the walls?

RP: Plasterboard?

SK: Yeah, plasterboard?

RP: Oh, yeah.

SK: I think we had plasterboard later.

RP: Yeah.

SK: And, radios? Maybe we had radios. I don't remember if we did or not.

RP: Furniture? Do you recall any furniture?

SK: Furniture, if we had it, it was probably handmade furniture that somebody made and gave to us, or Dad or Grandpa made. If they had the material they probably made it their selves, but I'm not sure. But I think we had, yeah, I think we had lanterns too, lamps, pole lamps. I think we did. I don't think we just had the lighting up on the fixtures.

RP: One light bulb.

SK: Yeah, I don't think we had just one light bulb. I'm not... yeah.

RP: Do you recall if you had a hotplate or something to cook on inside your room?

SK: You know, I'm not sure about that. We may have had.

RP: Any cellars underneath your barracks?

SK: Oh, well, you know that, we didn't have a cellar on ours I don't think. But I remember they, they put the board under there and some of them did make like cellars. But I don't remember if we had one.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.