<Begin Segment 16>

KL: You mentioned your work as the block manager's assistant.

MU: Secretary.

KL: Secretary. How did you find that job, get hired?

MU: I don't remember exactly, but I think the block manager asked me.

KL: Who was the block manager?

MU: Mr. Kamikawa, Kaoru Kamikawa. He used to have, or his family had a fish market in Fresno, and a grocery store.

KL: Did you know him in Fresno?

MU: Not him, but I knew the store, I had heard about the store.

KL: Did he tell you why he asked you?

MU: No.

KL: What was your, what were your job responsibilities as secretary?

MU: Take messages, telephone calls, deliver mail. Not too much responsibility other than that.

KL: Did he, what was it like to be block manager? What did you sense about that? Was it a difficult job?

MU: I was just the block secretary. I enjoyed it, got to know people better.

KL: What kind of things would they telephone about?

MU: Some of the problems they were having with the facility, the barracks.

KL: Do you remember any of the problems?

MU: No.

KL: Was it a pretty busy workplace?

MU: Huh?

KL: Was it, how many people would you interact with in a day?

MU: We had twelve, I think we had twelve rows of barracks, and each row had, two on the end were large rooms, next were small, and then two in the middle was medium-sized. So we, there were five of us in the large room -- we have iron cot beds -- and then two in the middle, three, I think the middle one had, could get three or possibly four, so you have quite a few in a row, one row of barracks.

KL: Was Mr. Kamikawa the block manager the whole time you were at Jerome?

MU: Uh-huh.

KL: And how long were you the secretary?

MU: Until the, Jerome closed.

KL: Okay, so you were secretary a long time, too.

MU: What, about, we were in Rohwer one year, so probably, what?

KL: About two years, I guess.

MU: Two, two, three years.

KL: Did, what did you think of the job?

MU: It was just a job. I enjoyed it because I got to see, as I'd deliver mail I could meet the people, and if there was any problem they would come for me to call wherever for help. I enjoyed it.

KL: What was your relationship with Mr. Kamikawa? Did you see much of him?

MU: No, not that much. Just official.

KL: Yeah, he had to be kind of counselor and handyman and leader. I mean, that was a, that was a multifaceted job.

MU: Yeah.

KL: Did he ever, or did you have your own ideas about the management of Jerome?

MU: No, no.

KL: You didn't have an opinion, really?

MU: No, I had nothing to do with that. Just some of the minor problems that we had within the block.

KL: Did you have any contact with people's, with people's politics or people's thinking about being incarcerated in Jerome?

MU: No, no.

KL: Did you observe, as an observer, did you see any tensions as a result of the incarceration? Or ways that it --

MU: There were always some minor conflicts, but nothing major. Like some of the blocks had major conflict.

KL: What, would you talk a little bit about those? What caused them and why was it in some blocks and not in others?

MU: Well, I think it depends on the people who were living in the, in those blocks. Some came from southern California, Santa Anita, where they've had, they had constant problems, conflicts, and then, like from our Fresno area, people were not that aggressive. So it all depended on situation and on people.

KL: Were there any particular moments that you remember, of conflicts? Like at Manzanar there was the uprising known as the Manzanar Riot, at Tule Lake there were strikes. Was there any real flashpoint in Jerome that you remember?

MU: I don't think we had any. I don't recall any. There might've been some minor ones, but they were probably settled. We had a few evacuees from Hawaii in our camp, and I understood that Hawaii is nice and warm, and people came without shoes. I can't believe that, but they didn't, they were barefooted. I don't know if that's true or not, but we had some people from Hawaii.

KL: Did you get to know any?

MU: No.

KL: But they were, they were a curiosity.

MU: Yeah. [Laughs]

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2014 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.