<Begin Segment 21>

RP: You did work at Manzanar?

HN: I worked.

RP: Tell us what you did there.

HN: I worked in the garbage crew. And when I got to be sixteen, that's when they allow you to work. So during the summertime I got out of the garbage crew and we used to go around the mess halls, pick up the garbage to take 'em across the street, the highway over there, to dump it in the place. They had a place for the garbage dump. But it was a great job because we got to go around the kitchens to find out which was making the best kitchens, the best pastries, and the best foods. And so we used to come back and then go eat our lunches at the best kitchens. And then we knew the best dinners so we used to go to that block to eat the dinner. [Laughs] So it was a good job.

RP: That doesn't sound too glamorous but it had its perks.

HN: Yes.

RP: Do you remember the mess halls that you went to?

HN: Oh yeah, all the different. The whole camp mess hall...

RP: I mean the ones that had the best lunch or dinner.

HN: No, I don't remember which ones.

RP: But you did then?

HN: Yeah, because they had a pastry baker in some of the mess halls that were real good at making pies and cakes, you know. It was a great job. At least we got fat during the summertime. [Laughs]

RP: Now would they just --

HN: Well, with garbage anyway, you know, when it's fresh, it doesn't stink. If you pick it up every day it doesn't stink.

RP: Were the garbage cans left outside for you?

HN: Yeah.

RP: Or did you actually go inside and...

HN: No, some of 'em we had to go in and empty 'em for 'em. We helped 'em out. That's how we got inside the kitchens.

RP: What kind of truck did you use to haul the garbage? Was it like a panel truck?

HN: Regular flatbed truck.

RP: Flatbed?

HN: Yeah.

KP: Did you just put all the cans on the back of the truck?

HN: Cans on back of the truck and took it out to the garbage dump and dumped 'em and brought 'em back empty, yeah. Rinsed 'em out.

RP: You said that you drove, it was like maybe 5 miles out to the east of the camp, or...

HN: What do you mean?

RP: You said that you, you took the garbage...

HN: Yeah, across the highway, somewhere across the highway east of, east of the camp. I don't remember where it was except we used to go across the highway a couple of miles and then into a dirt road back in there and there was a, somewhere was a garbage dump that the government corps of engineers built for us.

RP: Huh. Was there a hole or a pit that you threw it in?

HN: God, I don't remember.

RP: Uh-huh.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.