Densho Digital Archive - Rose Tanaka Interview (denshovh-trose

<Begin Segment 21>

AL: What was the latrine experience like?

RT: Oh, yes, when you have all your privacy taken away, and the shower room was one large room with showerheads protruding from all four walls, and no partitions, and you just went in there and took your clothes off and showered. And so people liked to go at odd hours so that they would try to maintain their privacy. And the same in the toilet areas when I first went there, we had no partitions between the toilets, and sometimes people would hold up a towel or something between. But you just didn't have any privacy. And quite a while later, then people started building partitions between the toilets, but the showers were never partitioned off.

AL: Were there lines for the latrines, or was it pretty much you could just go in whenever you wanted to?

RT: No, you can go whenever. There was no, there was no curfew or anything like that, so you could just go in the middle of the night or whenever.

AL: Right, but the, like, when there were a lot of people in the block, was there, was the facility big enough to accommodate everybody when they needed it?

RT: Yes. I guess people just had to schedule themselves. [Laughs]

AL: You were talking about going at night. I know a couple of people have recollected that going out of their barracks at night, search light following them, which could have been because they were trying to help light their way, could have also been for security. Do you remember the searchlights at night?

RT: No. I didn't go out at night.

AL: Did you ever see them outside the windows of your barrack, though?

RT: I don't recall that at all.

AL: Interesting. Yeah, that's...

RT: That's interesting if it happened.

AL: Yeah, I can't imagine being a teenager and having such a lack of privacy. What were the inside... we don't have any photographs, well, we have one photograph of a latrine that Archie Miyatake took of the men's latrine in Block 20, and it's just got the row of toilets. We're hoping at some point to reconstruct a couple of latrines at Manzanar, and I was just wondering if you could sort of visually walk us through, like when you went through the door, what would you see to your right, what was ahead and what was... do you remember, do you recall what it was like on the inside at all?

RT: Oh, it's just a barracks with latrines, I mean, toilets facing one way, and then the two rows of toilets, each facing the other direction, and there was nothing different, and no partitions. That was the thing that struck me the most, no partitions.

AL: Why did they, what did they put partitions in the ladies' later, but not the men's, do you know?

RT: I don't know. I think probably the ladies probably said, "Enough of this." I think that probably the women were probably constructing their own sheets, or using sheets or blankets or something, or cardboard, whatever. But I guess if you got to go, you got to go.

AL: What did those partitions look like?

RT: I don't remember much.

AL: Were they plywood?

RT: I don't really remember seeing many partitions, even in our block.

AL: Did the partitions have doors, or just open? Do you remember? Not remember? You know what? Your memory is incredible. And if someone asked me about a restroom I used yesterday, I probably couldn't remember it, so that's fine. What about in your barracks apartment, the furnishings? You said that your mom wasn't able to bring her bed and her sewing machine. What was the inside of your barracks like when you first got there, what was it like later on in the war?

RT: Well, the only thing I remember when we walked into that room was to see the stove in the middle, that was for warmth. And when our furniture arrived, of course, up until then we just slept on cots. And there were four of us, so one, two... let's see, four of us. My sister and me, and my two brothers, and we constructed lines or wires to hold up sheets to partition us off. And then the other side of the room, my mother managed to put up some sort of a room that had walls that were made from blankets or sheets or some material. And I visualized that she got a double bed in there, and nobody else had a double bed because my brother, when they moved the truck of furnishings, she got her bed there. So we didn't get invited into other people's rooms, so I had nothing to compare it with. But I can't say much else except I think we constructed some rudimentary tables or that kind of thing, benches to sit on.

AL: Did you spend much time in your bedroom?

RT: In?

AL: In your barracks apartment? Did you spend much time there?

RT: No, we spent very little time. We spent most of our time outside. Of course, going to school, I was gone all day, and I did work on the sewing machine sometimes, and sewing, and invited friends in if they had something they wanted to sew. But I remember, speaking of the old stove, my mother missed having some kinds of foods, so she would get some packaged flour or something like that and she would make stuff on the heating unit, and made some kind of biscuits or something.

AL: How would she do that? Just set it on top?

RT: Yeah, set it on top with a cover on, because she had, again, because she was able to bring some kitchen utensils. She had a pot that she could bake something on.

AL: Like a dutch oven?

RT: No, it was just like a skillet with a cover on it. Set it on top, so we got to eat biscuits once in a while.