<Begin Segment 16>

RP: Now you also went out on a couple of, they used to call them agricultural furloughs.

FN: Yeah.

RP: And, tell us about, tell us about those.

FN: Well, that, I first went out, we thinned beets and that's you make the beet, you thin the beets. And man, that's hard work. And then that fall I went out again to top the sugar beets and that's work too. Oh man, that was the toughest work in my life.

RP: Can you describe to us how you topped the...

FN: Well, you got a big knife with a hook on the end and you poke the beets and you top the beets. And in the morning the ground is frozen but during the day that, the beets are thaws out and boy you were just all wet. And it's so cold that your, when you get to the big long rows and when you finished your row, when you get to the end you can't stand up. You just cramped so you keep walking around like this. That's work. That's a laborer.

RP: Why did you choose to go out on those furloughs, Fred?

FN: Just to get out of the camp.

RP: And how long were you out of camp?

FN: Oh, just for the season of beet thinning and beet topping. And I was out with another fellow for about six months on the farm itself doing the farm work, different farm works.

RP: Where was that?

FN: In Rupert, Idaho.

RP: So you worked for one individual farmer?

FN: Yeah.

RP: Uh-huh. And how were you treated?

FN: Oh, very nice. The meat was rationed but the farmers, they raised their own hogs and cattle and man, I mean, at the dinner table we ate just, I mean, the meats you never ate in the camp or anything. The food was really good.

RP: Now the beet topping and the beet thinning, were those also in Idaho too?

FN: Yeah, uh-huh.

RP: And did, what was your living situation like? Did you live in a camp?

FN: No, they had, yeah we had, it was in a little camp like and then I lived with the farmer for about six months but we had our own place. But we used to, it was about a mile away from the camp so to take a shower we had to go to the camp to take a shower. The farmer let us use the car now and then to, otherwise we walked to go take a shower every day.

RP: And how did you get to the furloughs? Did you take the bus up to Idaho?

FN: Or what?

RP: How did you get up to Idaho from Manzanar?

FN: Oh, I think we took the train. But it was train that was hooked onto a freight train so every time the passenger train went by we, they side-tracked us so we side-tracked for about three or four hours. That's why it took us about a week from Reno to Idaho. 'Cause we didn't go like a passenger train. We were hooked onto the freight train. So we just side-tracked for hours.

RP: Did you, did you visit some of the local towns and communities when you were out on the furloughs? Did you go into town, any of the towns?

FN: No, I didn't know anybody...

RP: And, on these furloughs, did you go out with other friends or people you knew?

FN: Just the one friend that we were together and then, and another time there were about five of us that... there was one guy that we used to stay at... he finally when he came out he started his own bakery shop called Grace's Pastry.

RP: Oh, you were out with --

FN: George Izumi.

RP: -- George Izumi.

FN: Yeah.

RP: Oh wow.

FN: Oh, you knew George?

RP: I sure do, yeah.

FN: Oh, yeah. He was in, five of us in one barrack there and he cooked. We took turns in cooking. When we washed dishes, the people that cooked didn't have to do the dishes so we took turns and yeah, I was with George Izumi.

RP: Oh, neat.

FN: Yeah. And Kosh Ando. Yeah. And Harry Okamoto. There's five of us.

RP: So how did it feel to be out of camp for a while?

FN: Oh, it was great. But I didn't mind the camp after a while because I had a lot of friends and I was too busy to feel sorry for myself. You just made the best of everything. In fact you had to.

RP: Did you, did you bring back anything from your furloughs?

FN: Oh, yeah. You didn't make too much money on those furloughs but made enough to, so my folks have some spending money at the canteen at the camp, so that was the only thing out of... and I snuck in a bottle of whiskey for my dad in the duffle bag and he enjoyed it, I mean, you didn't get any liquor in the camp. And the people in the camp knew that anybody that came home from furlough bring a bottle of whiskey, so they all come and visit you. My dad wasn't much of a drinker but there, whenever you know you can't have it that's when you want it. So, he used to enjoy it and to me that was enough to see him enjoy it. He'd just drink a little bit like that and he'd get red as a beet.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.