<Begin Segment 14>

RP: Go back to Manzanar, your, you did a lot of interesting things at Manzanar as far as work goes.

MN: Oh yeah.

RP: You had a lot of jobs.

MN: Yeah, first job I came across was camouflage worker, making camouflage. And that was seasonal. It wasn't permanent stuff. So after that got a job as a, what they call oil delivery to each apartment. Coal oil for heating, so we used to have, those days, a gallon, glass gallon jugs. Used to carry all those stuff and go to apartment to apartment and first we checked how much approximately they need. So we write it down. So we go back and haul that coal oil and fill up their stove. And we did that for, I did that for a pretty long time.

RP: And that was, you did that, did you do that after school or what?

MN: Yeah, after school. And during the morning hours they needed us to meet the truck driver, that tanker, that brought, bring in the coal oil from California, southern California, to fill up these big tank for oil for the mess hall, the boiler room for the showers, the latrine, all of that. So he'll come in between about two or three in the morning at the main gate. So we had to be out there to meet him and guide him, which block needs oil so he could fill up the big tank.

RP: Tank. And the tank was out past the ironing room at the top of the block.

MN: Right, yeah, that was the main tank.

RP: Right.

MN: And from there it's all separated to...

RP: So you had to wake up at a pretty ungodly hour to go meet the tanker.

MN: Yeah, yeah.

RP: Then come back and go to sleep and then you wake up and go to school.

MN: Yeah, yeah. Well, they gave us a schedule of when they're coming in and approximate time they would be hittin' the main gate, see. So we had to be out there so when he comes in we have to guide him which, which block to go. Not, not Block 4 but some other block, see.

RP: Yeah, right, right.

MN: Yeah, either Block 4, 10, 6, all that.

RP: And you would fill the stoves up, there was another, another person that worked with you?

MN: Yeah, yeah.

RP: Who was that, do you know?

MN: He was Kaz, they call it Kaz Ando.

RP: Kaz Ando?

MN: Yeah.

RP: And so you do half of the block and he would do the other half?

MN: Yeah well he would, yeah, we used to shifts. We'd tell him what block, what building to cover and all that.

RP: So what was the capacity of those stoves? How much oil did they hold?

MN: Oh, let's see... maybe, I don't think it was five-gallon. I don't think it was five-gallon. Maybe three or four gallon, but.

RP: And during the, when it was really cold out, you know, the winter months, did you have to fill those stoves up every, every day?

MN: Maybe every other day. But, yeah, it depends on the weather. If it's severe cold and people will let us know if their oil is short or that needs refilling, they'll let us know. They run out or something. But, other than that, we just normally go all, all the apartments and see if it need it. If it don't need it we don't fill it.

Off Camera: And you got your oil to fill up out of the big tank too?

MN: Yeah. For the, from the big tank there's a spigot you use to take the oil out.

RP: And when it was really cold out would most families just burn their heaters all night long?

MN: Yeah, just about.

RP: You'd have to.

MN: Yeah. Because those tarpaper, I mean, it's real, real primitive, tarpaper and all that. And it gets cold and you get cold from underneath too. Because it's not on a solid...

RP: Slab.

MN: ...sealed ground. It's open.

RP: You have all that air move, coming in.

MN: Right. It comes right up. In fact, a lot of times you'd be better off sleeping with a bunch of stuff on the bottom than on a cot. Because unless you have a big thick mattress on the cot, okay. But just thin mattress, that cold air just comes right through you. And that's when a lot of the... you didn't get no issue of long-johns but I think a lot of, lot of people used to order through Sears.

RP: Did you remember getting peacoats at Manzanar?

MN: We used to call it horse blankets. Horse blanket coat, yeah.

RP: Oh.

MN: Yeah, real thick, bulky and but when it gets wet it just weighs like a ton. Yeah, we got issued that, yeah.

RP: So one of the things that the WRA tried to do was to weatherize the barracks a little bit. They put the insulation in, plasterboard and then the linoleum on the floor. Do you remember those?

MN: No, I don't.

RP: No.

MN: No. I don't recall any plasterboards.

RP: Yeah.

MN: No.

RP: Insulation, wall, on the walls.

MN: No.

RP: Oh, okay.

MN: You mean after the, after the people moved in?

RP: Yeah.

MN: Oh...

RP: That was probably summer or fall of 1942.

MN: No.

RP: The Terminal Island crews were going around and putting out, down linoleum and...

MN: Oh yeah?

RP: Maybe they didn't get to your block.

MN: I guess not. Maybe we didn't have pull. It's who you know I guess.

RP: It was. Yeah, it really was. Huh. So, let's see, you, you mentioned that you know each block, Barrack 1, the first room was reserved for the block manager.

MN: Yeah, with Block 4, Building 1, Apartment 1, that was the block manager's office.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.