<Begin Segment 19>

RP: So the following year, you went out to Vail. And how long did that stint last?

KO: Gee, I'm trying to recall. Maybe six weeks or longer. I remember getting there, and he furnished us a little house. Just a little bigger than this for the seven of us, which was good. He had bunk beds, he had a little kitchen, we couldn't... he treated us well. We did our own cooking and we'd get up. He'd come pick us up early in the morning, we'd go out there and start working harvesting sugar beets. He'd have 'em all dug out, having those machetes with the hooks on them, and picking them up, and taking the sugar beet on your knee and whacking the end off and toss it on the truck. Some of those things were, if you get it caked with mud, were big and heavy, and I don't know how we did it, but we did it somehow. But it was hard work, very hard work.

RP: And you went into town to shop?

KO: On the weekend, yes.

RP: What else did you do in Vail?

KO: That's about it. But we'd hang around together when we didn't have to work one day. We all got along pretty good. It was a group of guys that, well, we had special treats 'cause he set it up that when (...) it was pheasant season, and he'd tell the farmers he'd allow them to hunt on his property. But any time they got the hen pheasants, which is illegal, they shot them accidentally, he said, "Don't throw 'em away, bring it to our house." So we had pheasant a couple times, we had about three pheasants they would bring, we plucked them. We had somebody that knew enough, his dad was a chef, and he cooked for us. That's one of the plusses we had. But having a good farmer that kind of cared a lot, religious, you know, we had an advantage compared to a lot of other people. He appreciated what we did more than... others came back with no money, hardly.

RP: Yeah, it was a very disappointing experience.

KO: You heard about that? Yeah, yeah. Because the guy charged them.

RP: Right, and sometimes the housing was even worse than barracks in camp.

KO: Yeah, if I recall we weren't charged, I am very sure. 'Cause I had enough to buy a sport coat.

RP: For your graduation?

KO: Yes.

RP: Can you tell us a little bit about graduating in an internment camp?

KO: You know, I keep thinking back, it was just a... [Laughs] I think it was an outdoor ceremony, if I don't recall.

RP: There was an outdoor theater in Minidoka.

KO: Well, it wasn't up yet when I left. In '44 they didn't have one. A lot of that was done afterwards. Because the services they had for the dead servicemen were out in the open, chairs. And I remember wanting to graduate looking properly.

RP: You had caps and gowns, and all the trimmings?

KO: Yeah, I had a sport coat and tie.

RP: Probably meant a lot to you because you'd gone out and earned that money.

KO: Yes, we had to work for it. But some of the others, I don't know what they did. Maybe the parents bought it. We didn't all, they didn't all have clothes to wear. But I worked for mine.

RP: Did you have a prom, too?

KO: Huh?

RP: Did you have a prom?

KO: Yes, we kind of had a prom. Best we could.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2007 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.