Densho Digital Archive - John Young Interview (denshovh-yjohn-01-0014)

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RM: So your daughter was born in Manzanar.

JY: Yeah.

RM: What was that like for your wife?

JY: Well, they have professional doctors and nurses there, and they took good care of her. We brought them doughnuts after, gave it to the nurse, because it didn't cost us a penny.

RM: What do you remember about the Manzanar hospital?

JY: They were big barracks, yeah, they were all, they had the inside boards and all that, plasterboard and all that. It was nice.

RM: How about the medical staff? Do you remember doctors and nurses?

JY: Oh, yes. They had an American doctor, Dr. Little, I remember that name. He was the head of it, and then they had Japanese, bunch of Japanese doctors under him.

RM: Do you remember who treated your wife when she was pregnant?

JY: The what?

RM: Do you remember who took care of your wife when she was pregnant at the hospital?

JY: Oh, when she was in the hospital? The nurses did. She had professional care.

KL: What was Dr. Little like? What were your impressions of him?

JY: Oh, he was quite a nice doctor. He grew to love the Japanese people.

RM: What about other activities in the camp? You mentioned sports and movies, do you remember any big celebrations or anything other than that?

JY: No, that's about all that was going on, this was the churches and all that, religion going on, Japanese school and all that, American school, of course. They got their education there. A lot of people, some of my brother-in-law, graduated from high school in there before they went back east.

RM: Did you take any adult education courses?

JY: No, I was too busy helping her. I did all the washing and all that, there was a washtub, I washed clothes and all that. My family is pretty helpful, because I had a brother-in-law to help my sister back in the '30s, late '30s. So I followed in his footsteps with the help of my wife. In fact, I did the cooking the last ten, twelve years, in fact, I still do everything here. She appreciated that.

RM: Can you describe the laundry room? Is that where you did the washing?

JY: Yeah, yeah.

RM: Can you describe what that looked like?

JY: Yeah, yeah, it was a big laundry room, yeah. We hung everything up to dry in front of the barracks, it was a clothesline that people made and all that.