Densho Digital Archive - Taketora Jim Tanaka Interview (denshovh-ttaketora-01-0015)

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TT: But one thing, you know like Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward, Spiegel, we used to order a lot of mail order. As long as you work, you got paid twelve, twelve, sixteen, nineteen dollars a month. So you had some money to, you want to buy some clothes through the mail order.

KP: What kind of stuff did you buy? What did you look forward to buying?

TT: Well, you know, a lot of times we buy slacks, Levis, things, regular clothes. Because they didn't give you any. The ones they gave to us, I remember Tule Lake they gave us this once, and they got this from the CCC camp, they had a camp over there, and they had a Mackinaw jacket. God, you get a five foot four, 125 pound Japanese guy, he's got a six foot something, two hundred pounds...

KP: That's not good for chasing girls.

TT: No, heck. That's, I see some of those Issei men, they had it rolled up double. Great big, oh, my god. But one thing, that scrap lumber in camp, that was a premium. Because they used to do a lot with the scrap lumber. They just make shelves, make cabinet, things like that. And a lot of times, we used to make that thongs, geta, they used to call. Because that used to be pretty rough, that sand is pretty rough on shoes. One thing about that wooden thongs, you could go in the shower, didn't have to take 'em off. Wear it right in the shower because, besides, you never had hot water, so we always had cold water. That's one thing you always miss, you didn't have no hot water. Because the mothers used to get up early and go do their laundry.

KP: Let's see, you did sports, some. You did some sports while you were in camp, right?

TT: Yeah. We played, I played a lot of baseball. And football, even our Issei parents, lot of 'em played baseball. Because football, we didn't have the equipment.

KP: Was the, was the food better in Tule Lake than at Marysville, or about the same?

TT: Well, that permanent camp was about the same, but slightly better.

KP: And you were eating, working the night shift, you were eating in a different mess hall.

TT: Oh, yeah, if you work in the night shift, you go to another, they had a special kitchen for that, and you go there. But like us, we had a, we had a warehouse, hospital, and all that. That's all I know, you used to get coal. And we had a folding cot and a cotton mattress, that's all I remember. They gave us two blankets, that's right, wool blankets. Army wool blankets, they give you that. At least we got a folding cot, you know. But you get like Poston or Gila, they got a canvas cot. Of course, it's just as well because that thing used to get so hot. And then on top of it they (made) straw mattress. We didn't have straw mattresses, we had a cotton mattress. But you know, a good friend of ours that was in Gila, and what they said is they dump a truckload of straw in the middle of the block, "Go make your own mattress." Okay, that's fine to make a mattress, but what you stuff it, they give you a bag, and they found out later that they were body bags. But you couldn't sleep on the straw mattress, 120 degree (...), 110 degree weather anyway. They had a canvas cot, too, on top of that.