<Begin Segment 16>

RP: Did you work in camp?

SK: Yeah, not work. I mean, you get a job so you can draw a little stipend from the government. And my job, it wasn't really a job. I was in what they call a community center. There was a major newspaper for the whole camp, and then they had smaller ones, small local groups for their area. And I was one of the reporters for one of the areas. Block 5-7, all the lower blocks.

RP: Oh, the lower blocks.

SK: Yeah, and so we would go once a week to the community center, meet with the bosses, you know, the big, from the WRA. And we would discuss what's going on, what you can't print, what you could do, you can't do. Don't get too excited about this or that. And said, "Okay." So we reported the local news, just for the local people. Each one had a section that, and I did that. Because of that, for the little thing I did like that, it went on my MO on my army. So that followed me all through and got me easy jobs, you know, it's a strange coincidence that that happened that way. But that's the way it happened.

RP: So you kind of were like the beat reporter for your section of the camp.

SK: Yeah, I walked the beat for that place. It was mostly about sports and what's happening in the area. Because the big paper, did the picture of the whole camp. And the small ones like us, we printed once a week. And I did that a short time, because I left, but that put me in as a reporter. [Laughs]

RP: Yeah, you suddenly, you suddenly had a title.

SK: Yeah, a title.

RP: But it also enabled you to get to know people in the camp.

SK: Yeah, I kinda knew. Although we knew everybody just about anyway. Because our areas was most of the Seattle area, or local area. And the Portland area was a little different.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2007 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.