Densho Digital Archive - George Maeda Interview (denshovh-mgeorge

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KL: We are back, this is tape number two, continuing an oral history interview with George Maeda on October the 13th, 2014. And we were talking about mosquito repellents at Manzanar. It occurs to me that I should ask you when your father came to join you, how soon after your arrival at Manzanar and what was that like?

GM: Oh, nothing but joy. I mean, when we heard he was coming back, we thought, "Finally." I really don't remember the day he showed up, but nothing that bad, we were all happy. And he became, he was in charge of a building that gave out peacoats. And I don't know if you're aware of the salary structure there, I think there were three different salaries, unskilled labor was either twelve or fourteen dollars a month. Semi-skilled, I would think like the mess hall chief cook, that type, sixteen dollars a month. And the professionals, the doctors, clergy, were nineteen dollars a month. So that was the salary structure.

KL: Yeah, it was low, extremely low compared to what people were making before.

GM: But we were fed, we didn't really need the money, except once a week, the PX would have ice cream, so my parents would give us whatever it costs for a pint of ice cream. But other than that, we (didn't) need to spend money.

KL: You seem like a good observer, sort of, of change over time. You mentioned that the barracks were timbers with knotholes at first, and then that that linoleum and stuff came in maybe six months later or so, which jives with what I have read and heard. Would you describe in your first months at Manzanar what I would see if I walked into your barrack apartment and who was living there, and just tell us more about it?

GM: Boy, we lived with another family of three. There were four of us, there were seven in this room. And I mentioned before that the size of the room was determined by the number of residents. And each person was awarded one beam, and each beam was, I think, five feet. So if there were seven of us, our room was thirty-five feet long by about twenty feet wide. And the people, the families that lived there did not have to necessarily be related. So we had to make makeshift rooms, and we separated that with bedsheets. So when you walked in, the first thing you saw were a lot of bedsheets hanging, and that were different rooms that we all slept in.

KL: Who was the other family that was with you?

GM: The last name was Tanaka, they lived in Chatsworth. Nice family, I remember. We knew them in San Fernando. I don't recall how long that lasted, it wasn't that long before each family had their own.

KL: Were they still with you when your dad came?

GM: No. I'm trying to remember, I think when my dad showed up, or maybe about that time, they each got different rooms.

KL: How did school in Manzanar compare to what you were used to?

GM: Well, only... I can't compare it to what it was before, because that was the fourth grade. But I had to marvel at all the non-Japanese volunteers that came into Manzanar to teach. I can't recall her name, she was a superintendent or principal, Dr...

KL: Carter?

GM: Carter. And well-known, everybody admired her. And within the first year, from the first to the twelfth grade, was established. They weren't easy on us, I mean, we studied.

KL: Did your mother's sisters' families come to Manzanar, too?

GM: No. Mrs. Oki, who lived in Azusa, went to, first she went to Santa Anita it's the holding camp that they built while the other, the permanent camps were being built. So they went to Santa Anita, and then they went to Heart Mountain, Wyoming. My other aunt, I don't recall the name. There were ten camps, but I don't remember. No, we were all separated into different camps.