Densho Digital Archive - Tommy T. Kushi Interview (denshovh-ktommy-01-0016)

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RP: Tell us about Tule Lake, your impressions of the camp and what you did to sort of adjust or kind of get settled in?

TK: Well, first thing we says, "Hey, we better work in the kitchen." [Laughs] Get better food. So lot, not all of us, but I volunteered for kitchen. So, but...

RP: What did you do in the kitchen?

TK: Dishwashing.

RP: That's all?

TK: Yeah, dishwashing. For sixteen dollars a month, I guess. [Laughs]

RP: Now, did you get to wash the pots, those big pots, too?

TK: You know, it's funny, all I did was wash dishes. Somebody else did the pots. Most of my other coworkers were, at that time, elderly men. So I was the only young guy.

RP: And in those days, they didn't have those automatic washing machines, did you?

TK: Oh, no, no. It's just, you know, those... what do you call those? It's those metal --

RP: Metal sinks?

TK: Metal sinks. About two or three. Yeah, it's one side you wash, and then you rinse.

RP: Did you work a specific shift like breakfast, lunch or dinner?

TK: No, you work there all day. You go for breakfast and lunch and dinner. It's not too long, just during eating times, and then after that, you're finished. But you got to be there. Then later on, this one lady, one gal in our block says she's looking for typists, work a night shift, and she had to type all these personal records up, all the people. I said, "Oh, I have typing, two or three years of typing." Said, "I'll come work for you." So I quit. And they came after us, right to the door, take us to the administration building, and we'll work at night. Then in the morning they bring us back, right to the door.

RP: So you worked all night?

TK: Yeah. But from about eleven o'clock to whatever.

RP: Graveyard.

TK: Yeah, and then about halfway, they take us to have a break in the night mess hall someplace. So I don't know how many of us, thirty or something, maybe less than that.

RP: Did your folks work in camp, too, or your sisters?

TK: My dad was a carpenter. He was a foreman of a crew that was covering up the inside walls with the plasterboard for ceiling. Yeah, he got nineteen dollars. Foreman got nineteen dollars, just like a doctor. [Laughs] Like us, sixteen dollars.

RP: One of your sisters also taught kindergarten, too.

TK: Yeah. I don't know if they taught kindergarten or what. She worked in a kindergarten, all the kids come in, they looked after 'em. And my other sister, she worked in the mess hall, waitress, with me.