Densho Digital Archive - Irene Yamauchi Tatsuta Interview (denshovh-tirene-01-0021)

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KL: Would you, I keep putting this off 'cause I want to hear sort of a step by step detail --

IT: Okay.

KL: -- the account of your memory of it, but you've also given really amazing descriptions of, like your walks to the koto lessons and your kind of pranks in the school room and stuff.

KL: Are there other, other memories you have of Minidoka that are... like you mentioned hanging out by the, by the canals and going to see the Japanese movies. Where did you see the movies?

IT: Rec hall. They had one place where they showed movies. We saw Flash Gordon and those kind of movies.

KL: What was the rec hall like? What was the inside like?

IT: It's, you know the camp is, well, they have, I'm sure they have it at Manzanar, a model, and they have barracks that go this way. And I think it's similar to the ones we were living in, only it's the whole barrack, and they used that as a movie theater. So my mom used to go to a lot of Japanese movies. I don't know how often they showed it, but they were all sad, and so earlier, early on I sure didn't want to go. I was glad I wasn't living in Japan because everything was so sad and the kids, there were kids in the movie, and they must've been, they must've been separated or something. I don't know.

KL: You mentioned also your mom kind of giving you an allowance if you would go to breakfast.

IT: Yeah.

KL: What can you tell us about the mess hall and about meal times?

IT: Okay, we had to go to the mess hall, and it really, like mess hall food, it's, the bread was dry and, you know, the toast and all. We didn't like to get up to go. In fact, we didn't have a, what do you call, restroom in our house, we had to use pots. My mom used to -- well, I don't remember using one of those, but they, most families had a pot and they, they must've put a little bit of water in there and then they'd leave it overnight for anybody to use. And then in the morning they'd go and dump it in the toilets and come back with a fresh one. So the laundry room and the bath room and the showers, that's another thing, too, it was all open. And Japanese are really, they don't like to expose themselves that much, as I understand it. And I remember as a kid, taking a shower and looking at this woman and asked her if she had a baby. [Laughs] And now, well, then too, my mom was upset with me for saying that, but it's just a kid's curiosity. She had a [indicates a potbelly]. And I remembered we had, we had these scrub board things that we had to wash clothes there, and then on the side there was a door to the toilets. Well, somebody put a napkin in there, and whoever was cleaning it hangs it on the doorway for everybody to see, so that's a no-no.

KL: Like a sanitary napkin?

IT: Yeah. And of course I didn't know what that was, but my mother was so upset when she saw that, how disgusting. So the, with the barracks being on both sides and then there were two buildings in the middle, and one was the laundry and the bathroom and the shower, and then the other one was the mess hall. And we'd have to get in line and pick up our food and sit down. And my, I remembered, we used to go on picnics, my mom used to, or our family. So we'd get the dry toast, wrap it up in a napkin, and I don't know if it was my sister and I or my cousin and I, we walked up to the ad building where there was the only grass that we could find, and there was a mound, and right above the grass you could see the sentry with their guns, rifles or whatever, guarding us. And we'd sit there and we're gonna have our picnic. We needed something to drink. Well, we felt like we were stealing, but we went into the ad building, got that, you know that little cup with the water that you could get from the machine. We brought it out and we had that for our liquid, and we had a little picnic. [Laughs] But we were just kids and we just wanted a picnic, so we used to do that.

KL: What's the "ad" building?

IT: Administration building. Of course, those, well, I don't know who was working there, but it's just like offices here. So they had that in the hallway, and that's really fancy compared to what we have.

KL: You mentioned also the guards in the towers.

IT: Yeah.

KL: Did you, what are your memories associated with the guards or with the fence? Was that --

IT: That was the entry to our camp, I remember, or our side. I don't know if the upper side had it or not, on the other entry. But there was barbed wire fence all around and then there was this, I think it was a wooden structure. And they were up there making sure that we wouldn't escape or whatever. And of course, we really couldn't understand it, so we just went ahead and had our picnic. But I know that some sentry up there shot somebody in another camp. I think something about his dog or some, I don't know, anyway there were a couple accounts that I heard, read somewhere, that some people were shot.

KL: Did you get any caution from your parents or anyone else about --

IT: No.

KL: -- how to interact with that, or how to...

IT: No, and they didn't talk to us. But they had their fatigues on and they were, I think they were, what do you call rifles with the, seems like the...

KL: Bayonets.

IT: Bayonet on the end. We just ignored them and had our little picnic.

KL: You said that was the only lawn you could find. Do you remember any ornamental gardens, like stonework or ponds people built or anything?

IT: No. It was really desert, sagebrush. I remember my cousin getting a tick in her neck. Scorpions and desert type things. I don't remember, we, it was all dusty, and then winter was cold. And I don't think the barracks were finished.

KL: When you arrived?

IT: Yeah. Well, I don't think they finished it. That's why everything came through the cracks.

KL: You don't remember that changing ever. It was always...

IT: It was always like that. Once we got in there, that was it. Near the end my dad figured out how to trap jackrabbits and, with a wire coat hanger or something, and I remember him stripping it. And my mom, she had that burner, so she cooked rabbit. It was the first time I ate rabbit and it, to me it tasted like chicken. We thought, when they, everybody was moving out, we felt, well, we'll just have to go catch some rabbits. Then they turned off all the electricity, trying to get us to get out. I don't, we, my mother's stubborn and she, I just thought, "She's just gonna sit around and we'll just figure something out." Well, then they came in forcefully and grabbed her. Just scared the daylights out of me.