<Begin Segment 22>
RP: I wanted to learn a little more about your, the rest of your family in terms of what they, whether they worked in camp or not. How about your father?
CH: My father was a pot and pan dishwasher, I guess. They had these huge pots, they had to wash those. That's what he did. And my mother was the kitchen helper, the cook. She was very good at it, fast. And let's see. My grandfather was a janitor.
RP: He would clean the latrines?
CH: Latrine, two latrines. And let's see. My sister worked at a co-op, as a co-op seamstress. They had a co-op, you know. And of course, my brother was still in high school, and I was clerical.
RP: You pretty much worked in clerical your whole camp life.
CH: That's right, yeah. In fact, at the end, towards the end, they were trying to recruit some of us to work at Manzanar under the federal government. I think some did.
RP: You mean after the camp closed?
CH: Yeah. I don't know how they did that, but I think some did.
RP: As 1945, a number of people had already relocated out of the camp, they were very short on labor, and they began hiring high school students and anybody they could find to work in clerical, and that type of thing.
CH: It's kind of a stepping stone for me. Although I, there was a time I just stayed home, after I got married and had children. But I ended up working for the library as a library assistant for twenty, almost twenty-seven years, same department.
RP: So some of the work you did at Manzanar helped you?
CH: I think so, yes. Of course, they didn't have computers then, that's a lot of difference.
RP: Any other vivid memories of events or personalities at Manzanar that you can share with us?
CH: Personalities?
RP: Or sights, sounds, or smells of the camp that you'll never be able to get out of your mind.
CH: I didn't know a lot of places in Manzanar, 'cause we were sort of isolated in a couple of blocks, that's about it.
RP: Thirty and thirty-one?
CH: Yeah. I did one time, had to, I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing. With this fellow, I had to go all the way up and down the block to, what was I supposed to be doing? We were like an auditor or something. I don't know what we were doing. [Laughs] Back and forth, back and forth.
RP: Oh, so you went through the whole camp?
CH: Yeah. Through my department, I think. I don't know what we were doing.
[Interruption]
RP: Did you visit gardens at all in the camp? There was a pleasure park, Merritt Park area.
CH: No, we didn't go too far. People had their, we had lawns, you know. I think my father helped plant the lawn, and then strips of gardens.
RP: Around your barrack?
CH: Yeah.
RP: Did you have vegetables or flowers around there?
CH: Maybe flowers, I think. See, we had a field outside the camp, where they were growing vegetables. And that one fellow that was in that book lives in Sacramento, not far from here right now. Yeah, he was working there. And I don't... farmers were working there at that time. It was sort of a continuation except they didn't have to work all, just a certain time, that's all.
RP: For your father and your grandfather who worked really hard on the farm before they came to Manzanar, was it some kind of a break for them a little bit?
CH: That's right.
RP: Quote, a "vacation"?
CH: That's what they told us. 'cause they could rest when they want to, and it's not a whole long day. Lot of things have been done in several hours, that's about it.
RP: Now, your mom worked in the camp as a cook, kitchen helper. Was that the first time she'd ever worked before, other than the farm? I mean, to have an independent...
CH: I believe so, yes. And I think she took up... I don't think it was dressmaking, she made clothing of some kind.
RP: Oh, designing?
CH: Yeah, she was very good at that, too.
RP: So how did, how did your camp experience, did it promote a sense of independence in you, more than you had before?
CH: Yes, yes. But I totally didn't have the determination yet, at that time.
<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.