<Begin Segment 7>

KL: What was your father's work?

JO: He worked for the Department of Public Works, he was a draftsman. Because, of course, he was an architect, graduated UC Berkeley as an architect, so he worked as a draftsman.

KL: Do you know any of the projects he worked on at Manzanar?

JO: No. But eventually he got to working on the auditorium, but when he worked on it, he said the idea was it was going to be a Quonset hut, but he said he didn't stay long enough, he left in May, but he said it got changed to... because it needed to be taller and have sides, but it was adapted from the Quonset hut design.

KL: When did he start that job?

JO: Shortly after he went to Manzanar. I think they assessed everybody by, I don't know how, and he applied for work and got the job at the Public Works. And he worked with other people who were also very artistic, because my father was artistic. He met Henry Fukuhara there, they were lifelong friends.

KL: But that's where they met, you said?

JO: Yeah, Henry Fukuhara.

KL: Was Henry also working for the Public Works?

JO: I think so, because he was... I think so, I'm not sure. I don't know if he gave art lessons then, but he might have shown my... no, my father knew how to do watercolor, being an architect, he did watercolor. So he did watercolor.

KL: Did you spend any time with Henry Fukuhara in Manzanar? Do you have memories of him?

JO: No, not while I was there. Because they didn't have "bring your children to work" days that they do now, and I never went to see him work.

KL: What about from later? What can you tell us about his... I mean, I never met him, I have an idea of his personality...

JO: Oh, Henry Fukuhara?

KL: Yeah.

JO: I really didn't know him, but I met him at the opening, 2004, I said, "Oh, hello, Henry Fukuhara. I'm the daughter of Gen Nakamura." Said, "Oh, yeah, he died." [Laughs] I said, "Oh, yeah, I know that." And this was in 2004, my father died in 1999, and actually, Henry was quite a bit younger than my father, like ten years younger. So my father was ninety-four when he died. I think Henry was quite a bit younger. Anyway, that's the first time I met him. The second time I met him was in Riverside at the Appeals Courthouse in the judge's chambers. But anyway, he's a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals judge, and he knew Henry Fukuhara and had an exhibit of his paintings in his chambers, and they had this Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals hearing about the Korematsu case way back in 1944, whenever the hearing was, and it was reenacted. So because my son was an employee... well, let's see, he didn't work for Riverside at that time, but he lived in Riverside and worked in Riverside, he knew about the... he was a lawyer also, my son, he still is. He knew about the Court of Appeals reenactment, and he said, "Let's go." The two of us, put in a reservation for the two of us, because he wasn't married at that time. And we had, you know, it was very interesting, because I was always interested in all of that for when I give my talk. But at that time I didn't incorporate a lot of that information, but I do now.

KL: Did Henry Fukuhara have anything more substantial to say about your dad or anything at that time?

JO: No. By then he was in a wheelchair and he was not really all that clear in his mind, so I didn't say anything. I had met his daughter, Grace Niwa, and had, keep in contact with her. She's the mother of Paul Niwa who was going to Japanese school with my son when they were in middle school, elementary school and middle school, Orange County Buddhist Church dharma school. So that was kind of unusual, you know, we just kind of crossed roads that way. So I met her and her sister, and her sister was taking care of her father that day, and she said that he's not real good with talking anymore.

KL: Yeah, Alisa actually interviewed Grace Niwa at the Manzanar reunion this year, and I got to interview her husband.

JO: Yeah, class of '44, Ujinobu Niwa. He was also a student of my mother's.

KL: Oh, really? How did he do?

JO: [Laughs] How did he do? He and his brother -- he has a brother Ujiaki Niwa, younger brother, I guess, by a year -- they were both little rascals. Even though they were in high school, they were not, well, he was probably more well-behaved than his brother. His brother threw a ball at my mother, and not good, she failed him, and I think she gave Ujinobu a D. They didn't get good grades because they were not good, well-behaved. It was a matter of behavior and how they treated her, because she was this five-foot tall little teacher and they were all huge kids. But he remembers her.

KL: What do you know about the Sandridges' background if anything? Do you know what motivated them to come to Manzanar or where they were from or anything?

JO: No, I never really found out, I never really talked to her later on. I really don't know. I think they had a little boy, too.

KL: Do you recall your fifth grade teacher?

JO: Miss Bailey.

KL: What do you recall of her?

JO: I recall nothing of her. I remember I didn't learn a thing in fifth grade, or I think I didn't learn a thing in fifth grade. Maybe my math, I don't know, because when I went... after fifth grade, I left, my parents left for Chicago, we moved to Chicago, so I went to school in Chicago in sixth grade, and I really did poorly. Oh my gosh, I was so dumb. I didn't know anything. Probably math was the only thing I knew, and that was because my father could always tutor me in math, he was really good at math. So he tutored me in math all the way through high school, because I wasn't very good at math.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2013 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.