<Begin Segment 8>

RM: So what are the very first things that you had to do when you got off that bus in Manzanar?

GO: I'm not sure, but I know they gave us some kind of a shot. I was wondering if we got off the bus, or if we got there later. They gave us some kind of shot to everybody, I don't know what it was, but it sort of hurt for a while. [Laughs]

RM: Was it very crowded, were there a lot of people lining up?

GO: No. I think everybody that comes in got a shot. So it could be when we got off the bus, but that part I'm not sure. But I remember the shot we had.

RM: Do you remember seeing your barracks for the first time?

GO: Yeah, it was, I think it was windy, and you could hear the wind coming from the floor, because they had this wet wood that shrinks. And the side is tarpaper, so you get the wind coming in from the window, the cracks in the bottom. So it was cold.

RM: What did you think when you walked into that room?

GO: Well, it's a big room with, what, five of us, cots are lined up. I guess we decided to... I think we were on the side with my sister, my mom and dad was on the other side. So we got used to it.

RM: How many... there were five people in your room. Who were those people? Can you just name them off?

GO: My dad and mother, my sister, my brother, six of us.

RM: Okay. And then were the Segimotos nearby?

GO: No, no, they were the first inside camp, so they were on the other side of the firebreak. So they were like in Block 8 or 9, while we were in 16.

RM: So tell me a little bit about your first trip out to the mess hall.

GO: Yeah, that was something different. They ring a bell, these triangle bell, they ring, ding, ding, ding, everybody goes and lines up, then we're watching what the other people were doing to do, they're picking up the dishes, picked up the utensils and they walked to the place where they're serving. Then we got to find a table to sit on. So we got used to it. But the first couple of times, it's kind of, what are we gonna do?

RM: What was the food like?

GO: Food? It was all right. But later on, like I say, when I was working in the kitchen, and the curries come out, we didn't eat it.

RM: The famous lamb curry?

GO: Lamb curry. That would come out, we'd cook something else. That's the advantage you have in the kitchen.

RM: So how many people were in your block?

GO: Oh, that just depended on how many was in the family, because each barrack is divided in, what, four, like we had six, maybe this family had four or five.

RM: A few hundred people, probably.

GO: Yeah.

RM: Do you remember which barracks you were in?

GO: 16-4-1.

RM: 16-4-1.

GO: Boy, I remember that one.

RM: Never forgot that one.

GO: Oh, yeah.

RM: Can you describe what the latrines were like?

GO: Oh, when you first go in there, it's wide open, and there's no partition in between. But we got used to it. But the women's is the same, and there's some women that waits 'til it gets dark before they go in, like take a shower or whatever. But like us, we get used to it.

RM: Did your mom and your sister ever talk about what those latrines are like? I mean, I've heard that for women it was a lot more of an adjustment sometimes.

GO: No, they don't talk about it.

RM: They didn't mention it? It was not dinnertime conversation.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2014 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.