Densho Digital Archive - Rose Tanaka Interview (denshovh-trose

<Begin Segment 22>

AL: You were the only one in your family who was going to school at the time, right? Your sister had already graduated?

RT: No. She had, she was in a nursing school at the University of Cal, and her schooling was interrupted, and she came to camp when we all did, of course. And then sometime before too long, the National Student Relocation Council, I believe, helped her go to Colorado Springs to Seton School of Nursing so she could continue with her nursing. And so she left early. And then Henry left, Henry and Katsuma left earlier to go to Ordway where they were able to get some money from the property.

AL: And that's in Colorado?

RT: In Colorado, yes. Ordway is in the southeast part of Colorado, very dry and arid area.

AL: And I know you also were part of the National Student Relocation Council, which I do want to talk to you about. Before we get to that, though, I was going to ask you a little bit about, talked about the teachers, and the other day we were talking on the phone about... I was asking you why is it that I always hear so much of the class of '44? Why is class of '44 so active? You don't hear much about '43 and '45, and you explained that. So could you tell us again why... what was it that made class of '44 special?

RT: Well, I think the class... let's go back to class of '43. The class of '43 had already been pretty much in session. I mean, they were... yes, they were still in a organizational stage, the school was in the organizational stage. And for some reason, there were students who were there for just a half a year, and the others for the other half of the year. I know my husband's class was, he was through mid-year, they called him winter graduates and summer graduates, and so they were sort of separated that way. But by the time our class came into being, we were all on the same level. So instead of being split -- because I noticed last night speaking to people, the class of '43, they didn't know Floyd at all. And I realized that they were just very separated because of the gap between the two semester groups. But our group now started in the fall and continued together as one unit through the year, and that's the way it happened for the other students afterwards, the class of '43. I think we were the only class that really had a full year and had stuck together and worked together. We had this knowledge that we were somehow different in history of the camp, and that we had a unique situation. I remember when I was a junior, in my junior year I heard about the class of '43, but not a whole lot for some reason. I think because of the two separate groups. But we were all one group, and we worked together, and for some reason the people in our group felt that we had a place in history, I'd say.

And when we wrote, and the big thing was writing the yearbook, and Janet Goldberg helped us with that. But the journalist class really felt like they had to do a good job with presenting what the camp stood for. It was not just our class, but it was about the whole camp. And then we also had the skills of the photographer Miyatake, and we could have pictures, and they went around and took pictures intentionally of events in the camp to put into the yearbook. It wasn't like a, just what happened on a high school, any high school campus, but they wanted to show the whole camp situation. And in the yearbook they wanted to present what the camp was all about as a whole community and not just a student population. So I think... and then, of course, they got the principal and all to write something about the camp in the yearbook. So it was not just a 1944 yearbook, it was a 1944 Manzanar book, and it was called Our World, because that was really our world.

AL: Were you on the yearbook staff?

RT: I didn't have that much to do with it, but I did take journalism. Yeah, I guess I was on the staff, but I don't recall that I had much of a hand in it. But there were other people who were very involved in it.

AL: Do you know how that yearbook was distributed? Did people buy it or was it given out for free? Did the co-op publish it?

RT: No, they just gave it out to everybody. I don't know where the resources came from, but everybody had a yearbook. And anybody in camp, I know that my sister-in-law had one, and she wasn't even in high school. So I think anybody in camp who wanted one could have one.

AL: Ralph Lazo was in your class. Did you know him?

RT: Oh, yes.

AL: What could you tell us about Ralph?

RT: We called him "Rafu." We made a Japanese name out of Ralph, called him "Rafu." [Laughs]

AL: Why was he there?

RT: Well, Ralph's, all of his buddies were Niseis in Los Angeles. And he was, everything he did was with them. And when they got the order to leave and he realized he was losing all of his very close friends, he went, and I think he told his family ahead of time, but when he went and got on that train or bus, he just went over and got on the bus and went with him and we came to camp. He wasn't going to let his best friends disappear from his life, and so he came. And he was an amazing person, very outgoing and engaged, and he was a real leader.

AL: And did you know him... how long did it take before you got to know him? Did everybody in the camp know about it?

RT: Well, everybody got to know Ralph. He was just a very friendly person, and he was very... just a very warm person and outgoing.

AL: Where did he live?

RT: I think he must have lived in a, what they call bachelor's quarters. Because they had family quarters and then they had bachelor's quarters for unmarried men.

AL: Do you know why there were so many bachelors in Manzanar?

RT: [Laughs] I don't know.

AL: Yeah, 'cause there was a whole bachelor block.

RT: Oh, is that right? I never knew about that.