Densho Digital Archive - George Izumi Interview (denshovh-igeorge-01-0012)

<Begin Segment 12>

JA: Tell me about when people were allowed to leave. Where, where would they go and what circumstances would they let people leave?

GI: Well, they had to have a note or a letter of recommendation that they have a place to move to outside of California, and they were allowed to go. They, they weren't questioned whether you'll loyal or not and they would just... as long as they had the place to move to they were, they were given, I think, $25 per family or whatever to move, plus the railway ticket or bus ticket.

JA: Where would some people go, if you knew some people, where would they go if they couldn't go back home?

GI: They would go, they would go to Utah or to, mostly to Chicago or Cleveland, New York, or Pennsylvania. The Quakers took care of a lot of them. I, I talked to one fellow that was in, he was in the orphanage in Manzanar, and he told me that he left camp right after the riot. He was in the orphanage. He told me that he had two brothers that left with him to go out, and they were left at Boys Town, Nebraska, and two of his other brothers, I think they went on to Chicago and Milwaukee. That would be an interesting story there, but he, he didn't want to say too much about it.

JA: Did a lot of those people who went to the Midwest end up staying there after the war?

GI: Not too many. They stayed maybe, they must have stayed about three or four years and then they all came back to California or to Seattle, to Oregon. Not too many had really settled back east. I know a few, but that, that's about all.

JA: I know you said your family had been successful and had a nice house and were able to store your stuff in it. What do you know about people who didn't have homes to go back to? I mean, how did they...

GI: Oh, they were, they were all taken care of by these... like a hostel, they had different hostels in Los Angeles and Gardena in different areas in Southern California. That's where they were housed until they, until the housing was found for them. So they were taken care of.

JA: I also saw pictures somewhere of a trailer park that I think...

GI: That's one of them.

JA: What was that like?

GI: I don't know, I never -- I knew one family that was there in the trailer park, but she never complained to me about it.

JA: But that was kind of temporary housing?

GI: That's right, uh-huh.

[Ed. note: the end of this segment is missing due to technical difficulties.]

(JA: Tell me what was the... what was the best time you ever had at Manzanar?

GI: Best time in Manzanar? A lot, playing basketball, playing softball, and another thing, too, you asked me what I can remember about Manzanar. I remember I got hold of a golf club, but I don't know where I got that golf club, and I, and then I was going off in the empty space there in between the barracks, I just hit the golf ball. I can't even remember where I got the golf ball. So those, you know, those, some of the things that you can't remember. But I know that I would say, I would say that the majority of us had a good time in camp.

JA: Uh-huh. Were there any times that you say you, were not such a good time?

GI: No, I can't say that. We, we just accepted the way things were, and it's up to the individual as to who, what they want to do or what they want to succeed in.)