Densho Digital Archive - Joyce Okazaki Interview II (denshovh-ojoyce-02-0004)

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KL: What do you recall about actually arriving at Manzanar? What happened when you got there, what did you see?

JO: It was dark, couldn't see anything. But my uncle met us at the departure point, the disembarkment point, I don't know. I don't know how he... I talk about this now and I figured, "How did he know when we were gonna arrive?" Because there were a lot of different... so he must have just stood there and waited for all of the different trucks to have the people leave. And he was there and he carried some of our luggage for my mother, because, of course, my sister and I didn't carry anything.

KL: Do you remember where you did disembark from the truck?

JO: What I did?

KL: No, where you did. Do you have any idea where it let you off?

JO: Somewhere in the front, but I don't know where.

KL: Like close to the highway, close to where the sentry posts are now?

JO: Oh, I think it was close... yeah, it must have been. Not close to the highway, I think they drove in a ways. Because there were a lot of ditches, so there was a lot of construction. And my uncle said, "Watch where you're going, you don't want to fall into a ditch," because the ditches were like five feet deep, I guess, four feet deep. And so we're keeping our eye on the ground, and I don't know how we could see, but somebody must have had flashlights. Maybe we brought flashlights, I have no idea. But we were walking and walking, and my uncle fell into a ditch, that was the funniest thing, of course, he fell into a ditch and we all laughed.

KL: The one who had given you the warning?

JO: Yeah. But we had to walk from there to Block 12, because our first unit was 12-9-4, my grandmother was there with her children, my aunts, my two aunts. Aunt Masako was in a separate unit with her husband, and my aunt Kimi, who also got married, was in another separate unit for married couples. So we were, we stayed with my grandmother and two aunts that were still living with her. And I guess the son wasn't there, although I found out later by looking at his records, he didn't arrive at Manzanar until December, because he was in a hospital.

KL: Your grandmother's son? Who was the uncle who met you?

JO: Oh, he was my aunt's husband, my aunt Kimi's husband, Uncle John (Hasegawa).

KL: So you walked from the bus to, or from the truck to Block 12?

JO: Block 12, which was pretty far.

KL: Did you go immediately to the apartment?

JO: I don't know, we might have checked in someplace, or maybe my uncle took care of all of that for us. But I think they might have had to do that, I really don't know. You know, how we know where to go... but he knew where we had to go. We had to stay with my grandma.

KL: Had he arrived the day before, the group that came on April 1st?

JO: Yes.

KL: So what did you... I don't know if you have a memory for this or not, but what did you see when you first walked in to the barrack?

JO: Well, I saw that there were beds there, but I really don't remember, I think there were some beds that didn't have mattresses. I don't know if there were beds for us there. There were... you know, it might be that there were eight beds there already because my uncle Johnny (Hasegawa) and his wife stayed for one night in that, and then they were moved. It could have been that, because my aunt that was there with the doctor, and she had to stay close to the area where there was a hospital. So I think they just had some kind of a barrack set up for them there. Well, I don't really know, I have no idea the living arrangements, but all I know is we had to stay with my grandmother, and there were seven of us in the room.

KL: Were you glad to see her?

JO: Oh, yes. But my grandmother spoke Japanese, and we didn't really communicate that much, but I was always glad to see her, but I was more happy to see my aunt Irene, because she was younger, and I liked to play with her. Irene, who was the class of '44, by the way.

KL: Do you recall your parents' reaction to arriving at Manzanar or arriving at the barrack apartment or any of that first night?

JO: I don't remember what they said. I don't even remember what my sister said, but she said afterward that she still remembers to this day her first impression of that room, and she told my mother, "I want to go home. I don't want to sleep in a garage." So that was kind of touching and sad.

KL: It's a hard thing to hear from a five year old.

JO: Well, she was four. She had just turned four in April, her birthday's in March, so she had just turned four. And of all things, she doesn't remember very much about Manzanar, but that was the one thing she remembered. I guess maybe my mother might have told her, repeated it to her also, because it's hard to remember things unless it's repeated over to you.