<Begin Segment 27>

MI: You heard about the tomatoes didn't you?

RP: I think you told me about 'em but I want to hear, hear about it again.

MI: Well, the farmers were so prolific in growing vegetables in which they said... the local said that nothing could be grown in the desert. Well, don't say that to a Japanese. They could grow anything. So they grew tomatoes. Tomatoes, we had tomatoes for breakfast, tomatoes for lunch, tomatoes for supper and even at dances there was tomatoes. And now you see why I don't like tomatoes unless it's stewed like in a marinara sauce or something.

RP: Over spaghetti.

MI: Or spaghetti.

RP: I think they, there was also so many tomatoes they shipped them down to a cannery in Anaheim.

MI: Oh, they should have shipped most of 'em.

RP: They didn't ship enough. [Laughs] They didn't ship enough.

MI: Yeah, I don't think they did. But, boy... and then smelt was another thing. I think I told you about that.

RP: The other thing, another important question is did you ever leave camp at all on outings or...

MI: No. You couldn't.

RP: Well, later on you could if you had a pass, if you knew the right person.

MI: Oh, no, but you know, for work leave, yeah, there were people who went to work in... where was that? South Dakota or someplace? Potato?

RP: Yeah, for agricultural use.

MI: Yeah, they went for that. Sugar beets or something like that.

RP: Your brothers do that?

MI: My brothers didn't. (Narr. note: Joe went to Idaho and Montana to harvest sugar beets and potatoes before returning to Manzanar when he was one of the first to be drafted in the U.S. Army.)

RP: How about...

MI: Yeah, they used to come back and, you know, I bet they spent all their money and they come back with the boxes of chocolate.

RP: Boxes of chocolate and bottles of whisky.

MI: Probably.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.