<Begin Segment 33>

RM: I remember that first Christmas they only, I think she got ten dollars for the kids. So everybody got some... they had to get something so they gave, I think the Block Association or something gave us $10, gave her $10 and she would buy these pencils and stuff like that, you know, for prizes.

RP: For gifts.

RM: [Nods]

RP: Uh-huh. Do you remember anything else about Christmas in the camp?

RM: No. I don't remember. It, it just was another day I guess.

RP: Yeah. Well, how about, how about New Year's?

RM: Huh?

RP: How about New Year's?

RM: New Years, there no New Years, I mean, just maybe sake. [Laughs] There's not, you know, we all ate the same area so... sometimes they make something... oh, mochi, that's right. They started making mochi for New Year's. We had ozouni in the kitchen.

RP: Did you ever pound mochi?

RM: No. I was too young to lift the hammer.

RP: Too young? How old did you have to be to pound mochi?

RM: Well, somebody has... you gotta be able to handle the hammer, you know.

RP: Right. You were fourteen.

RM: Ah, they didn't want me... they got older guys that like to do that kinda stuff.

RP: But you remember getting mochi?

RM: I think it was, it was one, two years, I think we had it. Ozouni mochi.

RP: Tell us about ozouni. What, what is ozouni?

RM: Ozouni is a soup which the mochi goes into. It could be clear or it could be made up of things. They had the clear soup if I remember right.

RP: In Jewish religion we call that, those matzah balls.

RM: Yeah, yeah. They have that new years?

RP: No, we don't... we, we have it for all different holidays during the year. But that's a traditional thing is to have a broth and these balls.

RM: Chicken, chicken soup and matzah balls?

RP: Yeah. Chicken, yeah, right.

RM: I eat that.

RP: Uh-huh.

<End Segment 33> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.