Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Katsumi Okamoto
Narrator: Katsumi Okamoto
Interviewer: Richard Potashin
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Date: November 7, 2007
Densho ID: denshovh-okatsumi-01-0014

<Begin Segment 14>

RP: What you just mentioned about helping make things a little better for your block and creating dances.

KO: Oh yeah, in high school I was very active.

RP: Many Niseis did try to make things better for the kids. Older Niseis and you especially. Did you feel a sense of community in your block?

KO: Not within our block. I think within the high school itself, people my age. Frank Muramatsu, who was in charge of registration and things, he and I did a lot of projects together in school, high school. Tried to maintain.

RP: Like what?

KO: Just keeping things going, interesting, I was part of the Hi Y organization.

RP: Is that like a YMCA group?

KO: Yes, it was established and we had a reverend who was the head of it and organized it. There was a reverend, and I felt, I joined it because I was used to going to church and it was a good group. That was an excellent group because we all had religious ties that way. Course, the Buddhist church might have been stronger, I don't know, but I felt I did a lot of projects, volunteered for things, I guess that's why I was active.

RP: Doing this.

KO: With this, yeah. I had, last night was mine. [Laughs]

RP: So that theme has kind of followed you through your life.

KO: I guess you do. Some people, I feel good about it. I've done that back east, I've been in Optimist clubs. In Green Bay, Wisconsin, I was in the JCs.

RP: You mentioned about decorating your barrack for Christmas.

KO: Mess hall.

RP: The mess hall, yeah. There was a big kind of contest, I guess, in Minidoka, you know, who had the most nicely decorated...

KO: Oh, the mess halls itself, not dancing.

RP: Right. Do you remember that?

KO: Yeah, I remember that, but I never participated. We ate wherever we thought there was good food. We would wander as a group. So I rarely ate with my family. And I don't know if that's, I think this was very true for a lot of kids. They dined with their immediate friends rather than... then we tried to choose the better cooks, because the food itself to start with, like mutton, you know, you could make mutton taste good if you prepare it properly. But people to this day won't eat lamb chops, I offered it. Back in Seattle, they don't like it at all. And I tell them, "No, this is lamb chops, not mutton."

RP: What was, so was that your least favorite food in camp?

KO: I guess so, I don't have a recollection exactly. People talk about Vienna sausage because it's an easy thing to do, you know. And to me, I think Vienna sausage was better than mutton if they did prepare it right, 'cause mutton, the old fat is kind of rancid. Then I remember eating some dried dehydrated frozen fish. I remember somebody said swordfish steaks. The government must have had it stored for years probably, a good way to get rid of it. I heard rumors about some of that, boxcars being sidetracked, and I heard rumors that the former director of that was prosecuted. So I don't know about that for sure, I heard.

RP: Former director of Minidoka?

KO: Minidoka food.

RP: Oh, the food.

KO: Procurement. So easy chance to take... but I can't verify that. I heard about it.

RP: There were similar charges at Manzanar as well, that food was being taken and sold on the black market.

KO: Yeah, then it was subject to this, like the old mutton sitting there or somebody said you had swordfish steak, I recall that. But it must have been stuff that was stored for years that nobody wanted and they substituted it, you know.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2007 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.