Densho Digital Archive - Roy Murakami Interview (denshovh-mroy

<Begin Segment 30>

RP: Did you ever get to go out of camp?

RM: Yeah, we went once.

RP: Where?

RM: That was forty, I think '44. My aunt had a baby so my mother wanted to see her so she got out, got permission to go. We had, taking the bus. We took the bus and went up to Reno, Reno and then we got on a train there and we went to Denver, Colorado. It wasn't posted there against going. So they, they had a small market there and...

RP: Your aunt?

RM: Yeah. So we went there.

RP: What, do you remember the town where it was?

RM: Denver.

RP: Oh, it was Denver. Okay.

RM: Yeah. It was on Champa Street. Champa Street. Yeah. That's --

RP: So it helped...

RM: That train ride was one thing though. This lady, we got into this, what's his name? They guy when, guy that takes your bags and stuff?

RP: The porter?

RM: Porter, yeah. Porter took our bags and set 'em on the seat for us. And some guy, a lady, come and took 'em off and said, "No, that's my seat." So we had no seat. We had to sit on the suitcase and went all the way up to Utah like that. But some were, some of the sailors that were good, they, they told us... cards and stuff, drink. So, "You guys could have this seat to sleep." And we got to sleep. They were nice guys.

RP: How long were you in Denver for? Was it just a...

RM: Two weeks I think it was.

RP: And then back to camp.

RM: Yeah.

RP: How did it feel?

RM: Booze. [Laughs]

RP: How did it feel to be outside for a while?

RM: Well, nothing you could do out there, just same thing.

KP: Did you say you brought back booze?

RM: Booze.

KP: To the camp?

RM: Yeah. You could, you had to sneak it in. They were illegal. But they snuck in a lot of things.

KP: In suitcases and...

RM: No, we had, I think in one of the cases, yeah. We had only one bottle.

RP: One bottle.

RM: Yeah.

RP: Your dad...

RM: My father liked it, little bit once in a while so, yeah, he had one.

RP: You never --

RM: You can get beer. Used to be able to get beer, but no hard liquor.

RP: You used to get beer in camp?

RM: Yeah, they give you... after a while they started getting beer.

RP: Really? Oh. Do you remember any, any guys brewing up sake?

RM: Oh yeah. We had one guy in our camp. Buck. It was underneath the barrack. He fixed it real nice and then he'd grow sake. Begin from Jack, you know the raisins? That kind? And he'd... then one, one time my father's, I think it was New Year's, they had some bad rice or something. So he said, "No use throwing away. You give it to this guy and he'll make sake for everybody." So he made sake. Everybody, camp, I think all the camp, mess halls had at least a bottle.

KP: So what, do you remember what barracks that was? It was Block 4...

RM: Block 4... one, two, three, four, five... twenty. Four twenty, four twenty?

RP: Oh, there was...

RM: It's right behind the bathrooms.

RP: Behind the bathrooms?

RM: Uh-huh. It was high, though. That one, only one that had a high...

KP: Right behind the bath... was it fourteen or...

RM: Fourteen or fifteen, something like that. One.

KP: One. Okay, we'll go look.

RP: All right.

KP: See if there's a hole in the ground.

RP: See if we can find another bottle out there. Oh, that's interesting.

RM: They used to grow, you know they used to dig holes in the ground and they'd make cellars, too, you know. We'd make...

RP: Cellars. Did you make a cellar?

RM: Yeah, we had a cellar underneath.

RP: You were in 4-4-2.

RM: Four-Two.

RP: Uh-huh. And was it, did you, did you dig it out?

RM: Yeah, they dig it out.

RP: And did they line it with concrete or wood or...

RM: No, no.

RP: Just dirt.

RM: Just dirt.

RP: And so would you, would you go down there when it got hot or...

RM: Yeah, hot or else they would play cards or something.

RP: Underneath the barrack?

RM: Yeah.

RP: Canasta or...

RM: Yeah, Canasta...

RP: Bridge.

RM: Poker, whatever.

RP: Poker. [Laughs] Card playing was a big pasttime in, in camp.

RM: Oh yeah, Japanese like card. Especially the Hana.

RP: Hana. Uh-huh. Did you play that, too?

RM: Oh no, I didn't, no.

RP: Hm. You, you just played poker right?

RM: No, I didn't play there. I was out before I started to play.

RP: Well your mom learned how to play Canasta before she went to camp, right?

RM: Yeah.

RP: You said you snuck over and learned how to play Canasta and make biscuits. What about, while we're on the subject of vices or, you know, drinking... gambling? Remember gambling in camp?

RM: There wasn't that much I don't think. There was probably a little bit. But what the heck. You can't even put it on. You know, you can't gamble on everything so.

RP: Hm. Wasn't much to lose.

RM: Uh-uh. I don't think it was... maybe there was somewhere more out towards the end of the blocks.

RP: Uh-huh.