Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Miyoko Uzaki Interview
Narrator: Miyoko Uzaki
Interviewer: Kristen Luetkemeier
Location: Fresno, California
Date: September 11, 2014
Densho ID: denshovh-umiyoko-01-0017

<Begin Segment 17>

KL: What, in 1943 there was this leave questionnaire, Selective Service form for young men. What do you remember about those forms, those questionnaires being issued?

MU: I thought how dare they, government make us, after putting us into camp like this and then questions our loyalty. But anyway, the last, 27 and 28, those were the two questions that we had to answer, and people that answered no were sent to Tule Lake. I think I answered yes with, qualified it, saying that we were loyal citizens and how is that you have to put us into camp, questioned that.

KL: Did you ever have an interview about that in Jerome?

MU: No, no.

KL: In Manzanar there were a lot of, if people answered no or left it blank, most of those people had an interview with a staff person and there was conversation about the repercussions. Do you remember --

MU: I didn't have any interview at all.

KL: So even though you qualified it, there was never, no one ever addressed that or asked you about it or anything. Were there other, were there any interviews in the block manager's office regarding those questionnaires? Or did the block --

MU: No, I didn't have any. I didn't encounter any.

KL: Did you have conversation with other people about what they would write or how to respond?

MU: No, I think, I've heard comments, but not actually...

KL: Did you talk to your mother about it, or know what she thought about it?

MU: Yeah, I talked to her. They wanted to be with the children, and so they just answered it "yes-yes."

KL: So she kind of checked with you to hear your thoughts? Did she have a job in the camp?

MU: My mother? She worked for a very short time in the kitchen. But then she had to take care of my invalid brother, so she didn't work very long.

KL: Did she have friends in the camp?

MU: Yeah, she had friends.

KL: You said she was caring for your brother, but can you just walk us through a typical day for her in Jerome, where she went, what she did?

MU: Well, we had our breakfast in the mess hall, and lunch and dinner. My mother became a Christian. She, we lived right on the edge of the forest, and so -- and there was no, I guess there was no barbed wire fence on one side where the forest was, so she used to go out there and pray. It was her place of prayer. She worked in the kitchen for a very short time, but she was busy with my brother. I was around, but I started to help in the manager's office.

KL: Was that a forty-hour-a-week job for you?

MU: It was, yeah, regular hours.

KL: So did you have leisure time in Manzanar?

MU: Huh?

KL: Did you have free time -- I'm sorry, did you have free time in Jerome?

MU: Oh, yeah. Oh, yes.

KL: That was kind of new for you. [Laughs] What did you do with your free time? What was that like?

MU: I usually had something to read or... yeah.

KL: What did you like to read?

MU: We did not become Christians, church members until Christmas, just before Christmas that year, so we didn't even have a bible, and I can't remember what we read.

KL: Was there a library in Jerome?

MU: I think connected with school.

KL: But you didn't really use it.

MU: I didn't.

KL: [To MH] Do you have questions about Jerome?

MH: No.

KL: [To MU] Have I left things out about Jerome that you think are important to record?

MU: I think I mentioned people, we had people from southern California, Santa Anita, we had few people from Hawaii. The rest were from central California, from Fresno assembly center. And that's about it.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2014 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.