<Begin Segment 3>

LP: So from Fowler, what was the process eventually getting over to Gila?

MM: We must have gone by bus or train, I'm not sure.

LP: Was there a particular place that your family was told to go to?

MM: That, everything is blank to me, I just don't remember any of that. I just remember going to Gila and being there, going to school, I remember a lot of friends. I think we were there probably maybe about a year, and then we went to Tule Lake. Tule Lake was much... well, I was older, too, I remember much more. I was pretty impressed with the schools.

LP: So Gila... there was actually a lady that this past summer I met that was there, and she was a teenager there, and she recalled... 'cause I guess that, was that a reservation area?

MM: I think so, yeah.

LP: Prior to that? So were there, sort of, traces or evidence of any Native American or native people?

MM: I'm sure there was. The other, the camps in general, when people went, they were able to go in and out of camp a lot. And we had a neighbor who was a good friend of ours, and he had a big ranch, and he would periodically go out of camp, maybe tend to his ranch, I don't know, and come back and bring all sorts of goodies for all of us. That I thought was really neat, and he was the father of one of my best friends. But I know that when we went to Tule Lake, you could absolutely not go out. People who were at Tule Lake before the changeover, were all able to go in and out of the mountains and all that. Once we went, that was it. I think they either doubled or tripled the guards towers, put the sentries up there, and you could not step foot outside the camp, there was a lot of violence, I remember that.

LP: One of the stories about Gila that stood out to me was her remembering an elderly man who had wandered outside of the camp and never came back. Did you ever hear any stories of that?

MM: No, but I could see something like that happening. Never heard that.

LP: And then another thing, she mentioned, I don't know if it was arrow heads, but there was something that she remembers there having to do with native people. The other thing was movies. Did you ever, was there any entertainment?

MM: And I think we used to take blankets and sit on the floor and watch movies. But I don't know if that was Tule Lake or Gila, but that's what we saw in the camps, I mean, it was a huge group of people, and I think a lot of times I thought it was outside, I could be wrong.

LP: Do you know or do you remember what block at Gila?

MM: Yeah, I was in 10-12-A.

LP: And where in terms of the layout... earlier Richard was saying it was on the, different places he was out was the edge versus the center.

MM: I think we were probably on the edge, but Camp 1, there were two camps in Gila, Camp 1 and 2. Camp 1 was the smaller camp, and I think it was called Canal, the other one was called Butte. But I just remember block numbers, I'm into numbers, so I remember that. And we went to just regular school, it was a fun time for us because I was only eight at the time, went into camp.

LP: Do you remember anything about the terroir and the space that you were living in, how your family divided the room up?

MM: No. My mother was a seamstress, so she hung sheets up and made curtains. So it looked like a regular room.

LP: What about, you were saying school, do you remember any of your teachers or classmates?

MM: The classmates, I have an autograph book, so I remember that. In fact, there were some people who signed the book that I see once in a while. But as far as the school is concerned, I had no complaints about it. I've always liked school.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright © 2014 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.