Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Midori Suzuki - Sanzui A. Takaha Interview
Narrators: Midori Suzuki, Sanzui A. Takaha
Interviewer: Kristen Luetkemeier
Location: Millbrae, California
Date: July 13, 2015
Densho ID: denshovh-smidori_g-01-0018

<Begin Segment 18>

KL: When you got to Topaz, what did you see? What was your experience right at the arrival?

ST: A vast desert.

MS: Like the heat.

ST: Huh?

MS: The heat and the dust storm. Don't you remember the first day? We had a terrific dust storm, and you'd look out the window and you couldn't see the next building. And the bottom of the barracks were open, they were kind of like on stilts. And the floorboards had like an eighth of an inch of a crack in between the floorboards, so all the dust was blowing underneath, and it was coming into the apartment unit. God, it was a mess. It was quite a greeting we got. So it was kind of like, wow, this is what life is gonna be like here with all these dust storms. But fortunately, they didn't happen every day.

KL: Who was, what can you tell us about your living quarters in Topaz? Who was with you? When I walk in the door, what would I see?

MS: Again, we had two adjoining units, so they made an opening in between the two units. In the beginning, Mari, the oldest sister, she had come earlier because she was working with the hospital crew. But anyway, they made a partition, so Mari had one little corner. The boys took their cots and made them into bunkbeds, so the four boys were on one side and Mari was in the little corner by herself. And then the rest of us were in the second unit. And somehow they made partitions with cloth or whatever, so we had like a walkway, and we slept on both sides. Then about a year or so later, there was a young couple that lived in the small unit next to us. And when they had their second child, they were given a bigger unit, so Mari and Tsuki were able to move in and take that unit. So it made it a little less crowded. [Laughs]

KL: What was your address in Topaz?

ST: 30-3-D-E-F.

KL: Do you remember any of your neighbors?

MS: The Hananouchis lived in on the corner.

ST: Yeah, Hananouchi on the end.

MS: Minamis across...

ST: Minami, yeah, yeah.

MS: ...across from us.

KL: Where were those families from?

ST: Who knows?

KL: I mean, you guys knew very few people, right, if it was just those three Japanese families in Half Moon Bay. What was that like, to be meeting so many new people and surrounded by Japanese Americans?

ST: [Laughs] Different.

MS: Yeah, to say the least.

KL: How was it different?

ST: Wasn't used to so many.

MS: So many "Japs"? [Laughs] Terrible, huh? I think everybody settled in pretty quickly though, you know, we all started making friends.

KL: Do you remember, I mean, in Manzanar, there were people from downtown Los Angeles living with farming families from the central valley. Were there ever any tensions in Topaz or any differences that you noticed between people?

MS: I don't think so. I think they all pretty well worked together. I think you pretty much have to in that kind of a situation. Once we got to Topaz, of course, everybody were assigned jobs and things. So that kept everybody pretty busy.

[Interruption]

KL: So let's see, when we left off, we were talking about the barracks in Topaz and first arrivals. And you had mentioned that everybody got jobs and started working pretty quickly. And your siblings and your folks had kind of some interesting jobs, so would you just tell us where people started working and that they were, what their duties were?

ST: I was pot washer at the mess hall.

MS: That was what Chick did also.

ST: Oh, yeah?

MS: Yeah, at first, and then apparently later he was assigned to the fire department.

ST: Oh, yeah?

MS: Yeah.

KL: Was that the Block 33 mess hall?

MS: Thirty.

ST: Thirty.

MS: Block 30.

KL: But you lived in 33, right?

MS: No. Thirty, building 3.

KL: Oh, I see, okay.

MS: Thirty, building 3, D-E-F.

KL: Gotcha, okay. So you worked in the mess hall there in Block 30.

MS: And my mom worked in the kitchen.

ST: Yeah, worked side by side.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2015 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.