<Begin Segment 13>
KL: So when you moved to Block 22, what was your address in Block 22?
MN: Well, it's crowded. There's a long, one long barrack and one barrack was divided into four families, four rooms, so really crowded. But it was, I guess it was, we got by okay.
KL: Who was in the apartment with you in Block 22?
MN: Pardon me?
KL: In Block 22, did you share an apartment there too?
MN: Not the same room, but building, the barracks we shared with everybody. And we shared a laundry room and bathroom together.
KL: Who lived in the room with you?
MN: First was my father-in-law, my mother-in-law, and my sister-in-law and her husband and little boy named Victor, and my family three. First went to Manzanar, we lived in the same room.
KL: But then when you moved, was it just you and Kay?
MN: When they start building more and we could get one room for one family.
KL: Okay.
MN: And one barracks has four rooms, four families. They have... I don't know enough about it. Not even later days finished building the place, so each family have one room.
KL: How was that, to have a little more space?
MN: Not too big, but more privacy.
KL: Would you describe the inside of your barrack in Block 22?
MN: Pardon me?
KL: How did you set up your room? If I walked in your room in Block 22, would you describe what I would see?
MN: Yeah, they have a big sign outside. Ours was Block 22, Building 8, Room 2, so 22-8-2. That was our address, 22-8-2.
KL: What was inside? How did you set it up?
MN: Inside?
KL: Uh-huh.
MN: It's all wood floor, but has a lot of space in between, so when sandstorm comes, storm comes up from the crack in the floor. And then after the windy day everybody go out and shake -- we used an army blanket as a bedspread -- everybody's out and shaking the army blanket.
KL: Where did Jane sleep?
MN: I think we made, first we didn't have a crib, so we used a little box, I guess, apple box or something. And later, my husband was a very handy man, so he liked to make things. I have a drawer he made. So she slept in a little crib that Daddy made.
KL: What else was inside? Did you ever, did he make other furniture? Or did you --
MN: No furniture. We had an army cot, one cot with an army blanket to cover. That's our sofa. Just a bed and, at first we didn't even have a sofa, but they gave us an old cot, I guess.
KL: Do you remember any gardens in Block 22?
MN: Oh yeah. You know, Japanese people are so handy. First we went to Block 22, it was nothing but the sandstone, I mean sand, but later on we made a little garden and flowers, grew a little vegetables. But there was a pear orchard, apple orchard -- you know, Manzanar means apple in Spanish -- so there was an apple and a pear orchard, lots of... used to be there. A lot of pears, they grew a lot of pears, I guess.
KL: Yeah. We have a staff person who cares for the orchard.
MN: Pardon me?
KL: We have, on our staff there is an arborist. He takes care of the trees. That's his job. So some of those trees are still living and still produce fruit. Yeah. Did you go pick pears ever?
MN: Not too much. They didn't have so much. We just saw the tree, but we didn't see much pear.
KL: Did you have a job in Manzanar?
MN: No, I didn't because my daughter was small. But if you would you got sixteen dollars a month salary. And then, like supervisor or, they make nineteen dollars a month. But we didn't have to pay for food or housing, so sixteen dollars covered.
KL: Did Kay work?
MN: My husband? He was, yes, he was kitchen helper. He learned to make, he learned how to make apple pie and lemon pie by scratch.
KL: Did he work in the Block 22 kitchen?
MN: Yeah, Block 22. Everybody lives in Block 22 worked in the Block 22 mess hall.
KL: So I've heard some mess halls had good cooks and --
MN: Huh?
KL: I've heard that in some mess halls there was a very good cook and in other mess halls the food --
MN: Some were not. [Laughs]
KL: What was Block 22's mess hall?
MN: It wasn't bad. Pretty good cook in there.
<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2014 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.