Densho Digital Archive - Michiko Wada Interview (denshovh-wmichiko-01-0005)

<Begin Segment 5>

MW: But the one thing that saddened me there, and we had just gotten there, and when you get off the train now, they won't let you pull the shade up on the train, the shade's down. You get to the camp, you get in this bus, dusty old thing, and we're going to the desert, and I didn't know where we were going at all, I had no idea. And then before we get off, I told my mother, "Who are those people? They look like, from somewhere else." They had goggles on because of the sand storm that they have. Boy, did I find out about the sand storm. But they had goggles on, well, they looked real foreign. What kind of people? I didn't know who they were. And so that's what greeted you when they told you to get off the bus. And I see these sentry guys, well, I didn't know how many there were, there was such a big camp, your eyes just can see just so far, because everything wasn't built at that time. But that was weird, I don't know where, and then they said, you're assigned to whatever number barrack that I had. And then you go in there and my lord, there's nothing there, and there's holes all around from, they didn't put any tarpaper on the outside. So whatever holes that there was in the wood, that's what it was. And there's a potbelly stove, I didn't know that's what they called it, I said, "What is that thing in the corner there?" It was the potbelly stove. You had to get charcoal from I don't know where, my brother and they got it, and that's how you kept the room warm.

And like that, at the museum, they have two barracks there, and the first one this lady showed me, I said, "Oh, no, it wasn't this nice." I said, "Oh, no," because they had plasterboards already. I said, "Oh, no, you have to have holes, natural holes in the wood," you know. And she showed me the other one, I said, "This is it. This is what we came into." But later on, because of the sandstorm and sand coming in, you're choking to death inside, really you are. I used to be outside, my mother said, "What are you doing outside?" What's the difference whether you're inside or outside? So then they requested (...) tarpaper so the guys could put some tarpaper on and prevent the sand from coming in. And then you went to work at another block, because in a block, they have to have an office and a manager and a secretary because they have to have, like they had nothing, soap, laundry soap, facial soap, toilet paper, whatever. They had to distribute it, so they brought it to a central place and then they distributed it and gave it to how many people in that particular area.

KL: Do you recall what block you were in?

MW: Fourteen. Why do I remember? I don't know. The block is one thing I remember. The fire station was thirteen. Isn't that funny? That's the only thing... I don't remember the other blocks.

KL: Do you remember the rest of your address, what building and apartment in 14?

MW: No, I don't. I asked that fellow when I was there, and he may have told me but I can't remember, (but) I think he knew.

KL: I couldn't find it.

MW: You couldn't find it? It was in the middle. You know, there's two on the end and two in the middle, and as you're facing a barrack, one side, we were the first one, 'cause there's two in the middle of the barrack and two on the end. We weren't on the end, we were in the middle, but the one on the left side if you're facing the barrack.

KL: You said your mom worked in the mess hall in Block 1?

MW: Yeah, she did.

KL: When did you come to Manzanar?

MW: Nineteen... I remember, forty-three.

KL: Forty-two?

MW: Forty-three. When was the war, '42?

KL: '41.

MW: Oh, '41? Then it's '42.

KL: Do you know what month it was? If you don't, it's okay.

MW: No, I don't remember that. Isn't that strange?

KL: It's okay.

MW: I'll ask one of my girlfriends, she remembers everything. I don't know how she remembers everything, the one that I told you was active with the reunion and things like that.

KL: When did you next see your father?

MW: Oh, my goodness, I was trying to think. Was it a year or over a year? Well, we couldn't... you know, back then, for graduation, we had winter and summer graduates here. That's what they used to have. And I'm a winter graduate because my birthday's December. But we couldn't graduate... yeah, we couldn't graduate because we didn't finish the class yet. They took us in between the time before the semester was over, so they asked us to write to our school and ask for books, send the books so you could complete that particular grade or class. And so that's what we did, and they did send us the books, we sent it back. But remember, you're out there, so you'll play baseball, tennis. Tennis, we said we wanted a tennis court and they brought this big old barrel thing, that's the one you're supposed to put water in. My girlfriend and I looked at each other and we said, "We can't even move it empty, how in the world are we going to move it with water in it?" I said, "We can't do that," to flatten that ground up so you could play tennis. That was very strange. So they did finish it eventually, so we did play tennis there. But we had recreation, played baseball, so you had to have gym of some sort as one of the classes, you had to have some activity. So when we wrote that up and had some, the teacher or whoever was teaching it, had them sign it, that passed as a gym class. So that's how we got to go to the next class, or if anybody had a next class. But then right after that, I think we went around spring is when we went in. Why does April sound familiar to me? Something like that.

KL: That would make sense.

MW: And then summer, we had to work on the books from school, and then we went to class in the winter, they got some teachers in.