Densho Digital Archive - Miyoko Sakai Nagai Interview (denshovh-nmiyoko-01-0012)

<Begin Segment 12>

RP: So what was it like when you got to Manzanar and there's ten thousand Japanese?

MN: I couldn't believe, I could not believe so many. And they said more is coming, and I thought, "Oh, there's Japanese all over the place here. I've never... " Sure, Little Tokyo, Nisei Week, but that was nothing. And here there's Japanese all over, everywhere you go. And I thought, oh my gosh. I didn't realize there were so many, and then they said there's other camps too. Wow. I mean, it just kind of floored, floored. 'Cause I didn't have that much communication with, of so many Japanese.

RP: And so you were first assigned to Block 13, and one of the, one of the earlier hardships people talk about is the overcrowding, and I think your, your situation was like the extreme of the extreme.

MN: Yes. Oh gosh.

RP: What happened?

MN: A lot of overcrowding. Well, we went, my mother kept, she said she didn't want to get separated from my uncle's family. Well, he has all these little ones, and he must've had, I don't know, it was four or five at the time, little ones, but they're all babies yet, small. And so we got stuck with them Well, with four girls and a mom, my mother, that's just no way. And then I tell you, that barrack wasn't very big. We had just beds all over, and time-wise, my sister, she took care of, helped take care of the little ones. My aunt, she couldn't handle that, and I think she was pregnant at the time. But I didn't have to take care of any of 'em myself, but time-wise, my uncle, it got to a point where my uncle, he wanted everybody to be in bed by six o'clock. Forget it. [Laughs] That was, my mother said, "That's out of the question," even for her. So after, before we really got in a big argument and just... we decided, she said we're gonna move up. "They built some new barracks up there. We're gonna move." So we did, and oh gosh, because time-wise, I mean, he wanted everyone to be, exactly what he says. And he's supposed to be our, like a second dad, but my gosh, six o'clock with all these little ones. Oh gosh. So we moved from 13, and 13 was more in the heart, closer down near administration and everything, but no, 32 was much quieter up there. Yeah, so my grandpa, when he came, came up with Grandma -- that was the end of that first year -- he stayed with us. And then they, what I did was, they were a little bit more lenient, they opened up the barrack a little so we can go between two rooms.

RP: You had a doorway?

MN: A doorway, and our good friend -- this is, I'm sure she's the lady; her husband was the president of Blue Diamond -- she communicated a lot. She was a good customer, but she was more than customer, she was a friend. So she said, "If there's anything you need, let me know," and she'll try to get it up to us. So then, because we had Grandfather, and you know, he can't just, we had very little facilities there, electrical things, so she was able to get one of these big hot plates like, and so we were able to kind of heat water and cook for him a little bit, 'cause he couldn't eat a lot of things. We'd bring things back for him, though, from the mess hall. She, but Mrs. Vant, she helped us a lot, brought, sent things up.