Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Frank Isamu Kikuchi Interview
Narrator: Frank Isamu Kikuchi
Interviewer: John Allen
Location:
Date: November 6, 2002
Densho ID: denshovh-kfrank_2-01-0006

<Begin Segment 6>

JA: What kind of a daily routine did you get into? What was daily life like once you sort of settled in there?

FK: Oh, let me go back to the apartments where we were because it's sort of relevant to that. An apartment like we had, and everybody had, consisted of four bare walls and your bedding. And you had your suitcases in there initially, so naturally there was nothing to stay in there for. So the first thing you did in the morning was you get up and you go to the central wash area, men's lavatory and the women went to the men's -- women's lavatory, and we walked in there and did our duties and then we'd go to the mess hall. And you'd have your breakfast, such as it was, and over, in a period of just a short time, you'd get to see your fellow neighbors all over in that block and you'd start talking with them, and young guys like myself, we'd go with the young people, my sisters go with her, my sister goes with her young friends, and family life was gone because there's nothing to go home for except four walls and nothing to sit on, nothing to enjoy yourself with, no reading material, no radio, so your entertainment would be your friends. So we'd go walk around or talk with our friends all day and wait for the next dinner gong.

JA: How did that disruption of family life affect the older generation in the camps?

FK: In a way, I, I think it was a case of where our family, my mother and my father, were in normal life in the city here and L.A. before the war, from the crack of dawn until it got dark they'd be working. No longer had to work. So in that respect, maybe they might have initially felt relaxed about it, and on top of that, they had a lot of people they could make friends with and communicate with, because there's a case where everybody's in the same boat and everybody's Japanese. You don't have Caucasians. You can talk in your language, no restrictions about that. No... you don't have to hold back. So they had a lot of friends. They all made, everybody made friends, man being a social animal, and young guys did the same with their friends. And I guess initially, you got worries, but you sort of put 'em back and you start talking with your friends. And I would think the thing my parents had some amount of relaxation, there's no question... and in fact, as a case in point, one of the first things the Japanese did was form groups for social activities like knitting or sewing or craft work or arts and crafts, singing, you know, Japanese songs, and all kind of things like that. The Japanese Isseis did a lot of that, and the Niseis, they went into sports. We had, every block had their own teams and they'd play against other blocks, and every sports group had their own team. They'd play against other sports groups. So we did a lot of that.

JA: Did you play against teams from outside the camp occasionally?

FK: I think there was one or two occasions where they did play with the outside teams, and as I recall, most times they beat 'em pretty bad, because the Japanese had the pick of everybody in camp.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2002 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.