<Begin Segment 11>

EB: Did you ever do anything to support the war effort during camp?

GS: No.

EB: Do you remember anything about recycling, or did your parents ever buy war bonds?

GS: Not in camp, but I remember buying those stamps every week at school in New Jersey. I remember buying... yes, we did that.

EB: Did your parents bring any money or savings with them to camp?

GS: Gosh, I don't know. And I don't know how much, or... I don't think my father had much... so he was renting an apartment, we did not own a house. He did not have a car.

EB: What did you do with your property, your furniture, other belongings, before you went to camp?

GS: The duplex that we were living in, I remember we had bedroom furniture, nothing extravagant, but we had furniture, and we had some things in the living room like a sofa and a few other things. But obviously they were... I don't know how they, if they were able to take it to camp or what, but all I know is when we were living in Maryland, they did have the bed transported there. So obviously it's the bed from before the war, I don't know.

EB: So they must have stored it somewhere.

GS: I guess, I don't know.

EB: Okay. Did you use any mail-order catalogs when you were at Manzanar, or did your parents?

GS: My mother did. I remember my mother, yes, buying from the Sears and they used to call it Montgomery Ward, they used to call it "Monkey Ward" or something. [Laughs] Yes.

EB: Did she buy clothing or some other items?

GS: It must have been clothing, I don't know. There was a, what they called a canteen, and I do recall going there and seeing some things that were sold there. But to begin with, we didn't have all that much clothing anyway when we were in camp, just the basic essentials. And then whatever was given to us by the government. But I do recall my mother, yes, ordering from the catalogs.

EB: Did you ever go to the canteen yourself and purchase any items?

GS: Not by myself, no. If I went, it was usually with my mother, and I don't even know what we bought. All I know is I saw things that I would have liked to have had, like popsicle and ice cream, which we never got. [Laughs]

EB: Were any of your extended family members involved in camp industry or agriculture? Do you recall the types of jobs they might have held at Manzanar, like your aunts and uncles?

GS: Well, that one uncle worked as an ambulance driver, an aunt worked as a nurse's aide.

EB: And what was her name?

GS: Sumi Uchida Takeno. And my grandfather worked in the kitchen, in the mess hall, and I think my grandmother also for a short while worked in the mess hall in our block is the way I heard. And I had another uncle, I don't know what he was... maybe he was out on the farm, I don't remember. I vaguely recall that, something about, he was working on the farm. And then I had an aunt and uncle and (another) uncle still in high school.

EB: Okay.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2006 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.