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KL: -- March the 7th, 2015. I'm Kristen Luetkemeier with Manzanar National Historic Site. With me operating the camera is Alisa Lynch, and we're here in the Las Vegas home for another day or two of Ed Rothfuss. And we're going to be speaking especially, he had a career with the National Park Service, but we'll be talking especially about his role as superintendent of Death Valley National Park from 1983 to 1994, and his involvement with getting Manzanar established. So, Ed, I just want to confirm that we have your permission to be here today and recording this interview for the public.

ER: It's my pleasure to do it.

KL: Well, we appreciate that. Been excited to get to have this conversation. I want to start off asking you just when you first became aware of Manzanar as a significant place, or first heard about that story.

ER: Okay. When I arrived at Death Valley in August of 1982, I was given a tour, and they pointed out the old CC buildings at Cow Creek. And the comment was, "And these were used by some of the Japanese American internees during World War II." And that just kind of stuck in my mind. And that winter I started reading materials, and I ran across a very interesting article written by, I think it was Togo Tanaka. And in there he wrote, he was one of the seventy that were, got into the riot at Manzanar, and got sent to Death Valley. And they loaded them up in a Deuce and a Half and took across the desert and dumped them at Cow Creek. And I'd read his article, and I thought that was intriguing because he said, "We didn't know where we were going or what kind of trouble were we in or going to happen." When they arrived in Death Valley, here was this little man who was the superintendent, T.R. Goodwin, who was a short fellow, dressed in his uniform, came out to meet 'em and said, "Welcome. You are our guest here for a few months, and we want to make this your home while you're here. We have some work projects for you." But to get acquainted tonight we're going to have a barbecue down here." And he pointed to a burro tied over along the barn there and he said, "That burro will be our barbecue tonight." And Tanaka said he walked over and he looked at that animal and he saw those beautiful brown eyes. He said, "That night when we got there, we were, I did not eat meat. No way after seeing that beautiful animal." But he was very impressed with the friendliness, and the whole seventy of them felt very comfortable arriving there. And they found out that T.R. Goodwin, who also, his garage up there, and housing area of Cow Creek, he had a mock train set. And he built the most elaborate landscaping and all, had these little trains running around. And he invited the internees to come up and watch the train go. So they worked on trails. But anyway, I read that and I thought, gosh, that's kind of intriguing.

And then later that year, I guess it was maybe the next year, we heard about the annual pilgrimages they held every April in Manzanar. And Marge and I thought we ought to go up and see what this is all about. So we went up to Manzanar, and that was... oh, gosh, I forget, eight hundred to a thousand people there. And we went in and they had the program there, they had food, and somehow I got introduced as the superintendent of Death Valley, and met Sue Embrey and Rose Ochi, and they were just really gracious. And we started meeting some people, and I can't remember her name, but one woman was very intriguing. She was a very small Caucasian woman with white hair, and she was one who was interned there because she was married to a Japanese American in San Francisco. And she said, "One day the FBI came and knocked on my door, and identified themselves as FBI," and she said, "Why are you here?" "Well, we came to arrest your husband and your son." "Why?" "Well, they're Japanese American, and we've got to take them to an internment camp in Manzanar." "No, you can't do that. He's a little boy, he's eight years old." And they said, "I'm sorry, he's Japanese, so he's got to go." And she said, "If you take them, you're taking me too." So she was a Caucasian woman who came to Manzanar with her husband. And she was a delight to talk with, I'm embarrassed right now, I can't remember her name.

KL: Was it Elaine Yoneda? Married to Karl, they had a young son Tommy?

ER: Yeah, that's probably her. Elaine sounds more familiar, the last name I don't remember. But she talked about them going across in the Deuce and a Half and she kind of talked about whether Tanaka had written, too.

KL: What did she, do you remember what she said about her experience with that night or the caravan over?

ER: She just said it was kind of scary, because, "Where are we going? What's going to happen to us?" She was very tense, I think, about that. And I think we saw her in one or two, well, maybe one or two more pilgrimages, and I guess she passed away.

KL: Did you meet her husband ever?

ER: No, not that I'm aware of. But that was... and then we started going to the pilgrimage every year, because there were such neat people there. We really, I recall one time, I walked around, and there were two elderly Japanese Americans standing in the back of the property looking at the mountains, and they were laughing and waving their arms. And I went out there, I wore a uniform sometimes over there, and I'm just thinking, I said, "You know, you gentlemen are having such fun here. What's happening?" He said, "Oh, we remembered when we were kids, and we were in the camp here. And in our woodshop, we fashioned some bows and arrows. And the two of us snuck out of camp, we got under the barbed wire fence, and we went up the mountain, and once we killed a deer with our arrows, and we brought that deer back to our mess hall. And oh, we were heroes because now they had some real meat to eat." But I thought... they had just fond memories and were chuckling. Then Mas, who I guess you both worked with, Mas...

KL: Okui?

ER: Okui, yeah. I remember going through the tour with him. He talked as a little boy, they crawl under the barracks and play under the barracks, it was shaded and a neat little place to play under there. But it seemed like it just, that really got us, myself and my wife really intrigued about Manzanar. And then I started carrying that message back to the staff, I said, "We were up at Manzanar, and next year, if you can, get up there to the pilgrimage." So then there was an actual status came in, so we started in.

KL: I'm going to interrupt you for a second and ask a few follow up questions. Did Death Valley staff take you up on that? Did there start to be a Death Valley sort of presence at the pilgrimage?

ER: There were a few that did it. Not many, but there were a few. And then when we got officially involved there, we had rangers in uniform up there to help with the traffic. And one, George Voyta... we heard from, I don't know whether it was Sue Embrey or Rose (Ochi) called us and said, "There's a Boy Scout group that wants to do an Eagle Scout project of re-roofing the entrance building there, and we'd like to have that done." And I said, "Well, we'll send George Voyta over to look at the job and work with the Scouts." And George Voyta, that's his first involvement. He got over there and outlined a plan with the Boy Scouts and supervised the project so it was done professionally and well. And that's... so we sent rangers over there sometimes for the encampment or the pilgrimage, it was a busy day, we knew they needed some extra help around. But I'd say probably I can think maybe of a dozen staff members, different ones made it. Not every year, but on at least a trip or something.

KL: That tradition continues, you'll be glad to know, Death Valley rangers coming out to support the pilgrimage.

ER: Yeah.

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