<Begin Segment 17>

RP: Then were you notified that you would be going to Amache?

BF: It appeared in the newspaper. The Merced had a newspaper called the Mercedian and in, I think in July, rumors started about a move to a more permanent location, somewhere in Colorado. And, and in August, of course, it appeared in the newspaper, that's where you're going or that's where Mercedians are going to go. And the, but Amache was still under construction and it was very late August that the first couple hundred people left Merced.

RP: And one of the, one of those people was your brother, wasn't it?

BF: Yes.

RP: He was a volunteer?

BF: He was a... I don't think he volunteered. I think he just, somehow, selected them for whatever talents they might have had. The brother did go, Walter, was a, a sports writer for the Mercedian. Why he was selected, I have no idea. But... he was, he was one of, what, 212 or so in that first group. And some were, I guess some were nurses or whatever. Others were in the recreation field and, and, but they were asked to help build the camp because it was still under construction. As people arrived they'd look around and there were barracks still to be built, mess halls still to be built, latrines to be built. Basic services were still being developed. People had to use outdoor potties, privies.

RP: Latrines were still being built?

BF: That's, Lindley in his report said he, he wished that the, the WRA Authorities had waited. If they had just waited two months the camp would have been ready. But it wasn't.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.