Densho Digital Archive - Shirley Nagatomi Okabe Interview (denshovh-oshirley-01-0010)

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AL: What do you remember about just sort of daily functions at Manzanar like the mess halls or the latrines? You were a pretty small girl...

SO: But I hated the latrines. There was no privacy.

[Interruption]

AL: So what can you tell me about the latrines?

SO: Well, I would hate to go... so my mother would take me after dark when not too many people were there, and then one day I noticed there's a partition for privacy, so I thought, oh, maybe we can use that. And my mother said, no, they built those for the nuns, so we can't use them. I thought that was so unfair. But even as a youngster, I just, I remember that.

AL: So did the nuns live in Block 14?

SO: They must have, because they were using the showers there.

AL: Do you remember them?

SO: No, they were behind the partition. [Laughs]

AL: But I mean just in -- I think their names were Sister Bernadette and Sister Susanna.

SO: No, I don't.

AL: But it was in your latrine.

SO: Private latrine, private shower.

AL: Was it just one stall?

SO: Yeah, I think it's on the corner, the corner stall.

AL: Do you think other people resented not being able to visit?

SO: No, I don't think so. I think they respected their position.

AL: Do you think that your father or your parents had additional respect because of their positions?

SO: Not particularly.

AL: So just the nuns, the Catholic nuns?

SO: Uh-huh.

AL: How much interaction was there between like the Maryknoll sisters and your father and different... I do want to come back to the latrines, but just their, do you know anything about the kind of level of interactions?

SO: Well, my father gave a talk at the first anniversary of the Christian church, and so I think there was mutual respect between... I know the Christian church and the Buddhist church. But I don't recall anything with the Maryknoll or the other...

AL: Well, Mr. Kado was Maryknoll, who built the monument.

SO: Oh, that's right. That's right, he was. But he was the one to go to for the monument.

AL: So just going back to the latrines for a little bit, do you recall if they ever built partitions in your latrine?

SO: I don't remember. I don't think so, it was pretty open.

AL: Did you ever get used to it?

SO: No, it's something you don't get used to. Even as a child, you don't get used to.

AL: What about the showers?

SO: What about the showers?

AL: Could you describe the shower and how that worked?

SO: Yeah, that's communal, which I don't think anyone was used to. It's just part of camp life, I guess.

AL: What about the mess halls?

SO: Yes.

AL: Tell me about the mess hall.

SO: Well, I didn't look forward to going to the mess hall, but my mother made sure we had our meals, so we would go. But I can't say I finished every meal.

AL: Was there anything that you particularly liked or hated?

SO: I hated the mutton, because it smelled.

AL: What did it smell like?

SO: Not good, you know. It just had a foul odor. So I always remember, that's the only one I remember.

AL: Do you like apple butter?

SO: No. Oh, yeah, they served a lot of that, too, now that you bring it up. I never acquired a taste for it. Yeah, they did serve that a lot.

AL: I know that at one point in time they fed the younger children earlier than everybody else. Were you ever fed your meals at different times?

SO: No, no, I always went with my mother, yeah.

AL: Did your family always eat together?

SO: We tried to, but there were many times my father couldn't join us.

AL: Do you recall if you ever had like a hotplate in your barrack or any meals that you would prepare outside the mess hall?

SO: Later in, I think, right before we left camp, they must have closed up the mess halls, I think we had a hotplate in our barrack, and I think my mother used to cook simple meals on that. But it wasn't 'til the very end of camp.