<Begin Segment 8>

KL: Let me say first that this is tape two of a continuing interview with Jean Matsumoto, and I keep forgetting to say on the first tape, we're in Portland, Oregon, in the Doubletree Hotel for these interviews. And we left off, we were kind of back and forth with your hospital stay, but I wanted to ask about how your family, what your recollections of learning about the orders to leave your home and assemble.

JM: All I know is one day we were all packed up, and the great thing was evidently my mother was cooking dinner, because we got taken out to a Chinese restaurant which was really a treat. And yeah, it wasn't Hung Far Low, but it was another one downtown, a little bit closer to the fire station. And it was up a flight of stairs, and that was our last meal, dinner the last night. And I don't know even how we got from First and Pine to the Livestock. And then I remember going to school there.

KL: Do you remember arriving there?

JM: Pardon?

KL: Do you remember arriving there or a first impression of it?

JM: My first impression was walking into the mess hall. And they had these, well, these bowls that really aren't too big, but they're white, and they were filled with what I called mush, because I'm sure it was very good oatmeal for us, but it was mush. And that just turned us off completely. [Laughs] But I just remember that instead of regular cereal, but we weren't used to eating oatmeal. And it was just so unappetizing when you get this whole big bowl of something that you're not... and oatmeal's good for you and I eat it all the time now, but back then, it was not. But I remember that, and I remember the set tubs in the laundry room was where my three boys cousins were, took their baths. But the barracks, I mean, not the barracks, but the way the whole layout, I don't know how we ever found our way home once we left because every one section looked alike. And there was only canvas doors, and you could hear everything because it was all open on top and we could reach the cubicles, squares built so that the family could have their army cots, I guess. I don't remember straw mattresses or anything, but that's how they talk about it.

KL: Your family was in one of these cubicles together?

JM: Yeah, just in the square, and then there was nothing. At least when we went to Minidoka in the barracks, there was one lightbulb in the center of the room, there was the potbellied stove. We had, for a family of four, we had four army cots.

KL: Did you have an address or anything for when you were in the assembly center?

JM: Yeah, and I think they had that at the Legacy Center, it tells you which area. And I talked about these two children's chairs, they're real sturdy, and my sister and I used to sit at them. And in our kitchen we had a high table where my mom and dad's set, and right next to it we had a child's table and these two children's chairs, and my sister and I sat at that. And I can remember my dad turning the two over, tying them together, and I swear, they went to camp with us. Because I remember they were in our apartment, in our barrack in camp, and they had 15137 on the bottom. And so I can't believe my dad took these chairs with us. But I can remember my dad shaving in camp in the barrack, sitting in that chair in our room. So those two chairs went, and I think my sister still has them. They're real sturdy chairs, and my sister, I think, still has them. I hope she does, because eventually, well, maybe Lucas will be sitting in them someday. So I knew he took that up, but I don't know what else, I don't remember carrying anything.

KL: Your parents just took care of it?

JM: Yeah, my mother and dad. Like I said, how can you carry these two chairs, but he did. And I don't, and I can't remember how we got from the hotel to the assembly center. I do remember the train ride to Minidoka.

KL: You were starting to stay something about school at the assembly center, too, I think.

JM: School in the assembly center? Yeah. It was set up in the arena, and each group or each class had classes clear around the arena. And I don't know how we did it, because it must have been noisy, but they did have school. I think Lury Sato was responsible for a lot of that too. And the woman who was in charge of the parks, Dorothy Lynch, I remember knowing that she's... I don't know whether I learned it afterwards by reading it at Legacy Center, but she did supply the basketballs and baseballs and stuff like that for us to play with. But we all played jacks in the arena, too, on the cement floors. And I remember playing jacks.

KL: Was that a gathering place after school, too?

JM: Yeah, uh-huh, and it was cool, 'cause it had the cement. Everybody tells the story of the day somebody had the brilliant idea that if they watered everything down, it would cool off. Well, the boards that were our floor weren't watertight, the water went right down, and evidently they had built our living quarters right over where the animals had been. And the smell came up, and so they have it illustrated at the Legacy Center with all these flypaper. And the smell, I mean, I can remember the smell, and so I was told what they did, but it wasn't a very bright idea. [Laughs] I mean, on the cement, it might have cooled us off, but the arena seemed cool, always cooler. That was a hot summer.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2012 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.