<Begin Segment 18>

RP: And then you returned again to Manzanar.

TM: Yeah, uh-huh.

RP: Uh-huh.

TM: Let's see. Yeah, returned again, yeah. Then my third trip was went to Salt Lake, I mean Utah, fruit picking. That's when I had my car.

RP: That's right. And you shared a very interesting story with me about the car. How were you able to get the car from Los Angeles back to camp?

TM: Yeah. I had my brother talk to Mr. Frizzell and, and he drove the car into Manzanar and the car was left there until I went out again to Idaho for fruit picking. And we, we went out on a bus and somebody drove the car over to Reno, yeah. And from Reno we drove out to Provo, Provo, Utah. Yeah. And we did fruit picking in Provo, peach, pears, different fruit. And then after the fruit season was over we went to Idaho again for potato picking. Yeah. And when I was in Idaho picking potato I got a, I got a letter from my sister saying she's getting married. "So if you could make it, come home, come down to Manzanar." So I drove, I drove from Filer, near Twin Falls, to Reno. That was kind of a scary trip, though. I drove at night because I stopped at a gas station and they wouldn't sell me gasoline.

RP: Because you were Japanese American?

TM: Huh?

RP: Because of your Japanese American heritage?

TM: Yeah.

RP: Was that the only time when you encountered a situation like that in all your travels out of camp?

TM: Oh, no. Another friend and I went to, we went to a restaurant... and we went to a restaurant and we ordered a hamburger and a malt and the waitress waited on us and you know how the old time restaurant had a counter in front of the kitchen and the guy would put the food on top there and well, he brought it out I guess he saw two Japanese sitting there so he yelled at us, "What are you doing here?" And he said, "Well, didn't you see the sign outside?" And we read the sign. It said, "No colored allowed." [Laughs] So we had to walk out without, without eating our hamburger.

KP: What town was that? Where was that?

TM: That was, I don't know. Utah. I don't know what town it was.

RP: And you just left rather than making a scene?

TM: Oh, yeah. I don't, I don't raise fuss about things. Well, if they want me to leave, I'll leave.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright (c) 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.