Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Taeko Joanne Iritani Interview
Narrator: Taeko Joanne Iritani
Interviewer: Kirk Peterson
Location: Sacramento, California
Date: October 17, 2008
Densho ID: denshovh-itaeko-01-0010

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KP: So what are, what are some of the more memorable times that stand out in your mind about the experiences you had in camp, stories...

TI: There, I remember when we had a funeral, and it was a man who... they had no children, the couple had no children. And I know I worked on the flowers, the paper flowers that we made for his funeral, and it was a cross, a red and white paper cross. It was beautiful. You had to make your own flowers or you didn't have that kind of decoration. The church building was in our block, in our recreation hall, and I was... I don't know whether I was the only one attending from our block, whether our family was the only one or not. For the Issei service, there probably were some others. But among the children for Sunday school, I think I was the only junior church person, because we had a lot more Buddhists in the camp. We went to movies. I remember seeing Frank Sinatra in Higher and Higher, and I think there were some girls swooning there, just like everyplace else, for Frank Sinatra.

KP: Where were your movies shown?

TI: There was an outdoor stage and a huge screen, probably, I don't know, probably this, size of this room here, this space.

KP: Like a drive-in.

TI: Like a drive-in. And so it'd be, and you took your own chairs. My father made some little folding chairs for us.

KP: Made them out of...

TI: They made everything out of scrap lumber. And one thing he used to do is to make the birds, carved birds, have you seen those? His were very, very good because he was an artist. None of us got that talent, but he... Emma Buckmaster, of course, knew other teachers in Bakersfield. And the art teacher, I believe she was at Emerson junior high school. She contacted my father and sent him paints. Sent him the kind of oils that you use sticks, stick oil or whatever. And I remember the painting he did of Sallman's head, head of Jesus, he copied that. And we used to have it in our little church in Bakersfield. I don't know what happened to that, we closed the church up. But it was his painting, copy.

KP: What did your dad do with the birds that he made?

TI: Emma, he sent it to Emma, or to that teacher, and they sold it to the people in Bakersfield. I wish I had some of 'em back. I only have one of his birds, and it's a little bluebird, Eastern bluebird, in fact. And I have one of his ironwood pins, that one's lost the pin itself, and one painted heart. And I told, I showed it to the girls when Susanna, our oldest daughter, was there at our house after my husband died. And I showed it to Ken, our son, and he didn't realize I had these. Susanna knew it. It's going to go to the girls and my daughter-in-law. And I gave him the pencil holder that my father had made out of ironwood. It's a lovely piece, and it's his now.

KP: So did your dad ever do this kind of artwork before he went to camp?

TI: No. He was strictly the farmer. Strictly the farmer. And I didn't know he had that artistic talent. And somehow, he conveyed the idea to Emma, who had contacted the art teacher, yeah. And I'm not sure where all the things are.

KP: Yeah, so it sounds like -- and we hear this from some of the other people, too, that for some of the Issei, the camp was a time to explore other aspects of themselves that they wouldn't get to do because they didn't have to work from sunup to sundown.

TI: Yes. For some people, it was a short-term godsend. My mother told me about one Issei lady who told her for the first time, her husband could not beat her. Isn't that sad?

KP: And that was because of the closeness of the community.

TI: And area, in a building that everyone would hear. If there was a baby in our barrack, we would have heard that baby cry. Because above the walls, it was open for the whole barrack. And if you had an argument with your brother or sister, they heard that, too. So as one friend here that I interviewed, she said that her sister was having some problems and the family had to talk together. They went out into the street, which didn't have a lot of cars on it, obviously, that was the only place they could talk. That's how little privacy we had.

KP: I guess you had to learn manners, too.

TI: Yes. And the parents were watching other people's children, too.

[Interruption]

KP: All right. We're talking about... this is a continuing interview with Joanne Iritani.

TI: Iritani.

KP: Iritani, okay. And we're talking about her time in Poston and the experiences of her family. And you wanted to talk about your dad's artwork.

TI: The birds... that I had a hand in it. I actually used a coping saw and cut some of them out. [Laughs] Then he did the rest, of course, the carving and the painting. But I helped him a little, not always.

KP: So he started with a, like a rough piece of board, and then made an outline that you...

TI: Yes, he would draw the space that he needed to have cut, and I helped him a little. I was not the artist by any means. But no, he really was an artist, and I wish some of us got a little of that ability. I think it's him down to my daughter.

KP: Good. Glad it's still in the family, though.

TI: Right.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.