<Begin Segment 10>

KP: Let's get back to Manzanar. You said that... well, talking about school. You went to high school in Manzanar.

TF: Oh, yeah.

KP: And you talked about your teacher?

TF: The difficulty with the school is that I'm not the best student. When I was in L.A., I went to John H. Francis High School, which I had to transfer a lot. And here it was kind of difficult. In fact, it wasn't in the nice part of town compared with L.A. High School. And you hear a little more, at that time I remember the Okies must have been having trouble, because when I was walking down the street you'd hear a lot of yelling about Okies and stuff at that time. All I know from the movie is that they had a tough time. But that was the schooling there. At Manzanar, they didn't have school, so in '42, they asked for volunteers to go to Idaho for sugar beets and potatoes. And so a few of us from Block 5 volunteered to go for that September and October, harvest. That was the best thing I ever did, because I was too dumb to know that the weather in L.A. and the weather in Idaho is not the same. And all I had was city shoes, and I'm in the sugar beet and things, I didn't have any boots or anything. And so, you know, first thing you kind of do is I have to go buy boots. And then I find out that you can't say too much, because the farmers, they say they average fourteen, sixteen tons to an acre, and yet ours ended up with carrots, just eight tons per acre. So you learn that what is said and what is done is not the same thing. But at least I was able to buy a hotplate. It's not one of the hotplates, but it's a coil thing where at least when I brought it home and gave it to my mom, it brought a sense of civility, because they could at least now have hot tea. Whereas without that, you're sunk.

And only -- I'm going to digress a minute -- there was some pictures by Ansel Adams that was available. And when I looked at that, I said, "This doesn't look like Manzanar to me." And I told my best friend, "Hey, do you remember Manzanar like this?" And I told him and he said that picture, which is not typical, and that was fixed up, was his older sister. And they knew people from Los Angeles, who used to ship 'em stuff, because they were the same age. And so they made 'em look like it was a pretty nice apartment. And since they had that, they had the, what looks like the average place. And so I thought I'd mention that everything in a picture is not necessarily true.

KP: Thank you for that. That's a real important piece for us when we reproduce some of the barracks and stuff. So thank you for adding that. So you went up to Idaho?

TF: Oh, yeah.

KP: What was it like being, you'd never been out of Los Angeles. Had you ever been out of Los Angeles?

TF: No. All I know is that it was cold and it was muddy and if you're on a farm, you've got to be prepared for it. And therefore, that was a lesson learned. But it was over enough so that we went back home. But in '43, they wanted people again. So the Japanese police chief in Manzanar, they lived in Block 5. Well, his son and I went to Idaho again. This time we went to work for a farmer in Manan. And helping him out and doing whatever, and that's when we had to get the food stamps and whatever. But I found out on the farm you don't really need those things. Because if you need a piece of meat, you tell the butcher and he gives it to you. If you need stamps, you take it out of here type of thing. And so it was pretty good. And then I decided that, well, I'll stay there and try going to Idaho Falls High School. And so I enrolled there, but then after a week I found it was kind of too hard trying to go to school, work, trying to pay for your lodging and everything. So I asked the representative... oh, I didn't know if you know that they had representatives looking out for us.

KP: Tell us about that.

TF: Well, all I know is that they kind of checked up on us to kind of see how we're doing. And when we're going to do anything, we just had to let them know. I didn't know we were supposed to, it's just that it's just a courtesy. And so I informed them that I think I'd better go back home, I called it home, which was Manzanar. And he arranged it so I could go back to Manzanar. So I got back there in October, and I went to school from there. So I find myself at a disadvantage, because I was a senior just from October through June. And I didn't meet a lot of people there. So at these reunions I have to tell them that, "I'm meeting you for the first time." And some of them I thought I knew. One fellow, I said, "Gee, I think I know you from back then," and he said, "I don't know you." And so that was the end of that. And some others would come up to me and I can't really remember them, but at least I act like I'm trying to think. But the next year, you know 'em. And so everything works out fine. These reunions are the best thing we ever had, at least I think so.

KP: Let's go back into Manzanar, and what did your father do? Did he work when he was in camp?

TF: Yeah.

KP: What did he do?

TF: As far as I know, I think he was a janitor again. And I don't think everybody held it against him. All I know is that the people that are looked down on are butchers and... you know, they have a certain name for that. And they're restricted in their occupation as to what they can do. And I guess being a janitor isn't one of them, because nobody ever said anything to me, and they didn't do anything about it. But we had an in-law who was a butcher, and he did real well. But at least it was after the war, and he lived in Los Angeles, so everything was okay. But there's these little things that...

KP: Did your brother and sister work in camp, or your brothers?

TF: Oh, my sister worked at the Free Press, which was the newspaper. And I don't know what she did after she got married because I was in the service then.

KP: She got married in camp?

TF: Uh-huh. In fact, she married someone who might be considered a Kibei. Because after the war, he volunteered to serve as an interpreter at the war crimes trial. Because if you get your education there, you can speak the stuff really good. And that, it's just one of those things where that's what happened. And so it's...

KP: Did your sister go to Japan?

TF: Oh, no. She was at, she stayed back, because it was sort of a two-year type of thing. And it was one of those things where you're sort of, quote, "duty bound," because even though you're a, quote, Kibei, that doesn't mean your loyalty's over there, it's just that you got your training there. But then you can't generalize it, because a lot of the Kibeis I know would be rooting for them more than us. So you had to sort of watch out.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.