<Begin Segment 30>

KL: You had been in a college preparatory track back in Gilroy. When you went to Poston, did you think you would continue your education?

AO: I had no idea if it would even be possible. I mean, we didn't even know whether we'd be able to finish the twelve grades. So in the year that I went to school, we didn't have the classrooms. But that summer, like my mother even went out to make adobe bricks so that they could build the school, and they did build the school. So there was a high school, but I had graduated by then, and I was working.

KL: Working in the mess hall still?

AO: No, I left the mess hall and got a full time job, 'cause that was as a student, so not being a student any more. And I was able to type, so I got a job as a clerk typist. And I ended up copying all the material off of each of the block managers' daily guides, things, for Colonel Leighton who was getting ready to write a book, and he has written a book.

KL: Who was he?

AO: I don't know what his first name was. Leighton, L-E-I-G-H-T-O-N. So I was sitting there, and so my challenge was to be as accurate as possible without erasing. [Laughs] So, and I built up pretty good speed.

KL: He was writing a book based on the block managers' accounts?

AO: Yeah. And he has a book out. I haven't even looked at it to see it. It's got to be very dry. [Laughs]

KL: Maybe you're footnoted.

AO: I doubt it.

KL: I know you did end up going to university though out of camp, right?

AO: Yeah.

KL: Tell us about the process.

AO: Then after I finished, Dr. Leighton pulled everything out and moved to Phoenix for his headquarters. Then that job ended, so I moved over to the Ag. department and started there as a clerk typist, then became timekeeper, and then became office manager. I was too young and dumb to know any different, so when nobody else would take it, they said, "You want to be it?" and I said, "Okay." So I worked under Mr. Sharp, who was the heads of the Ag. department.

KL: What did you do as office manager?

AO: Oh, a little bit of everything, because I was the only one who could take shorthand, so I took shorthand, minutes of things, and took in the reports from the three camps on all the ag. stuff. Yeah, I did the timesheets for the workers.

KL: What kind of projects were happening in those camps? What was in the reports, I mean, in agriculture?

AO: Oh, agriculture? We were growing all the produce for the three camps, plus enough to ship some out to Utah. And we had a pig farm, cattle, I don't know if we had any sheep, but... and chickens. And all the eggs, and the chickens, milk. I don't know if they made cheese, because I don't know if the Japanese ate much cheese. Plenty of milk.

KL: Did workers from Poston create those fields?

AO: Yes, uh-huh.

KL: Was that still happening when you were working there?

AO: Yeah. So we had equipment to cultivate and to dig the ditches and set the irrigation up.

KL: Was there a relationship with local extension agents?

AO: Well, that property where Poston was located actually belonged to the Department of Interior for the Indians. The Indian school was going to be moving out from Phoenix to that site.

KL: The boarding school?

AO: I guess. That's how come Mr. Sharp came as the Ag. department head because he was going to be running, it was going to be an Ag. school.

KL: Why didn't it come?

AO: Well, because they put the camp there.

KL: Yeah, I've heard that there was tribal resistance to the camp. Did you have any encounters with tribal members?

AO: No. We had an Indian working in our office, and I'm trying to remember his name. He was the nicest guy. I was learning some Indian expressions from him, and I was teaching him some Japanese.

KL: Do you remember any of the expressions?

AO: No.

KL: It's been a long time.

AO: Yeah. And he used to be a, in movies, in some movies, just small parts, bit parts in movies, the Westerns. He was just a nice guy.

KL: How old a guy was he?

AO: I'd say he was in his late fifties, so he was quite a bit older.

KL: What did he tell you about his background or his life?

AO: Nothing. He just... you know, little bits about, we'd ask him about how it was being on sets and in the movies.

KL: Did he tell you about what it was like to grow up? Did he grow up on that reservation?

AO: No, we didn't probe any of those kinds of questions with him, and he didn't share that much. So it must not have been good because this was after I was married, Art and I took a trip to Grand Canyon. And going along some of those areas where the Indians lived. I just felt ashamed being American, treating the Indians the way they did, giving them... they've had the dregs. We stopped at one little place I guess to get some gas or something, and Art went in there. And when he came out, he was bringing this man with him. The man had been, for the last six months, herding sheep up in the hills, and so he was finally able to come home. But the bus that would go past the road that was his home was not going to be arriving until late that evening. So Art said, "Give him a ride," so that's what we did. And I saw where he lived, and I just... it was just some branches standing up put together, barely a house. It wasn't a house, it was just a lean-to. And when he started to come out, the kids came running out, and then they saw us in the car, and they all ran back in, so then we left.

KL: This fellow that you worked with in Poston, what was his job?

AO: Can't remember exactly, 'cause he was doing work in the office, and just helping Mr. Sharp, yeah.

KL: What was Mr. Sharp's title?

AO: I guess he was the supervisor or the director of agriculture or chief of agriculture. Anyway, he's the head of the Ag. department. And we had a lot of employees, over three thousand employees, because they worked the fields.

KL: How did you learn about that school that was planned?

AO: Mr. Sharp told us. William Sharp. He told us about it.

KL: Do you have any, did he say anything about how, I don't know, the affect that that had? Were people happy or sad?

AO: No, no, he didn't talk about, he didn't...

KL: He may not have known.

AO: Yeah. He just said a little bit about his background, that he was instrumental. He was in Phoenix and they found this territory, and it was part of the Indian territory, so they were planning to build an Indian school there.

KL: Was his professional background with agriculture or as an administrator?

AO: I'm not sure. He knew his ag., agriculture, and he could talk to all the guys who were working in the fields.

KL: Was it anything of a demonstration project, do you know, Poston? I mean, did local farmers or Indian farmers...

AO: No, they didn't do anything like that. They just worked and produced, and they produced well.

<End Segment 30> - Copyright © 2013 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.