<Begin Segment 15>

RP: Did you have other folks from your community who were located in Block 14? Other Japanese Americans?

KT: The Aoki family... Aoki?

AF: Iyoki.

RP: Iyoki?

AF: Uh-huh.

NN: Sus. Were they in that family?

AF: Yes, Sus.

RP: Oh, yeah, Sus. Yeah, that's right, he was in 14.

AF: Yeah. He was her age, huh?

KT: I believe so.

AF: Yeah, you were in the same class.

RP: There was another family that was in 14, the Nagano family?

AF: Oh, yes, Masako.

RP: Right, and Joe?

AF: Joe, yeah.

RP: And his sister was Masako?

AF: Masako, yeah.

RP: And I think they lived in 14-12, which would have been the...

AF: Yeah, at the end, I remember.

RP: Right, the building next to you.

NN: Is it the Nagais?

AF: Nagano. Masako Nagano. Remember Masako? We used to walk to school every morning together.

NN: The Nagai used to live close by, too. I thought they were next door.

AF: Naganos...

KT: Not Nagano, but Nagai.

AF: Nagai, next door, yeah.

NN: Richard and Kazzie Nagai, and her sister.

KT: Yoshiko.

NN: Yoshiko. And a brother, I can't remember that name. I thought they were next to us.

AF: Yeah, they were next door, right.

RP: What do you, what else do you remember about the block? Were there any basketball courts, gymnastic equipment, anything else that you remember Isseis or Niseis constructing for the kids?

AF: Well, there was a basketball court.

RP: In 14?

AF: That's all I could remember. And Laundry room...

RP: Do you remember a small wading pool, concrete wading pool in Block 14?

KT: I don't remember any pool.

NN: But I do remember that, I had mentioned previously about the snow during the winter, where they had stacked all the snow on, like a slope. It was near, I think it was in the direction of those basketball courts, so I'm assuming that it may have been around that area. But people would toboggan down.

AF: Oh, really? Oh, I don't remember that.

RP: So that was your first experience with snow?

NN: Oh, yes. [Laughs]

RP: At Manzanar?

NN: And made a great impression. Cold, chilly impression.

RP: Yeah, just the change of environment was pretty drastic for you and everybody else.

AF: So windy and sandstorms.

KT: I'll never forget the wind, sandstorm.

RP: The winds are still there.

NN: I imagine so.

Off camera voice: There was that home movie that showcased tobogganing down the snow hill.

RP: That's right.

NN: Oh, is that in, was it 14?

Off camera voice: I don't know if it was 14.

NN: That's what I, I don't think it was 13. I think 13 had the fire engine.

RP: Fire engine? You remember that?

AF: Uh-huh, I remember that, too.

RP: Do you? Did you ride around in it?

AF: Oh, no, no. They would never give us a ride. Or they never asked us, anyway.

NN: But I remember there was this Indian chief, I think it was Chief Thundercloud, that came to visit our elementary school.

RP: In Manzanar?

NN: It was, oh, it was really exciting to see him with this huge bonnet on, feathered bonnet, oh, it was so colorful. And, you know, he's so strong and so stoic. It was really fun. That was wonderful. I imagine there was some Indian tribes in that area.

RP: Right, not normally associated with these huge head bonnets. So that was a morale boost.

NN: It was, for the kids.

RP: For the kids?

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.