Densho Digital Archive - George Uchida - Leo Uchida Interview (denshovh-ugeorge

<Begin Segment 14>

RP: We were talking about coming to Manzanar, your first days in the camp, you were put in Block 30, and most of the, a large part of the Florin community was in Block 30.

GU: Right.

RP: Did you have any initial reactions or impressions about the camp or about the landscape around you? What struck you the most when you first saw that place?

LU: The first thing I... well, the thing I remember was, first thing we had to do was get our bedding. They give us those canvas bed and then we have to put straws in there.

GU: For the mattress.

LU: For mattress.

RP: What was it like sleeping on those straw mattresses?

LU: I guess I was young enough so that it didn't bother me too much, I guess.

GU: Me neither. [Laughs]

LU: You know, you go into that... you know, there's eleven of us and the parent. And then in this one barrack, you were divided into four apartments. So our family, we had one, and this... in our apartment, him and I, and May, Sumi, Father... so there were seven of us in that one apartment. And then the last apartment, my, the, see, three older brothers, and then the brothers from another, the Sakakihara family, five boys, so they stayed in that room, one room. And then the next one, the Sakakihara, the father and mother, daughter, and the two daughter, they stayed in there. And then in the apartment 1, the Nakano, Ruby, Fred, and then four kids stayed in that apartment.

GU: No, it was only Grace and Eleanor at the time, I think. I mean, Walter... Grace, Walter, and Eleanor. I think... wasn't she born there?

LU: No, I think she was a baby.

GU: Was she a baby? Oh, okay.

LU: So you could see how cramped we were. And you walk -- I went walking into that, the apartment, and just one headlight and the stove, that's it. Nothing else. And, of course, the main thing was the cot. Little by little, with a sheet or something, they kind of made, divided it off for the ladies and boys and then parents.

RP: Pretty crowded. Seven of you.

LU: Yeah.

RP: Did your family make any improvements to that room?

LU: Well, like I said, with sheet, it divided. And then somehow, able to make a small table. I don't know where we got it, but we had, had a little table and some chairs to sit on. I noticed some of the other families, they were able to make a desk and all kinds of things.

GU: Did we get plasterboard later on to cover the walls?

LU: Yeah. When we first moved in, the outside was that oilcloth.

GU: Tarpaper.

LU: That was it. And inside, yeah, you could see the studs on the inside.

GU: It was bare.

LU: Of course, there were some board, and then the oilcloth. And then on the floor, there were some knotholes, holes, so sandstorm... you wake up in the morning and there's a layer of sand all over. And then, like he said, later on, they came with the linoleum for the floor. Then after that, they cover the wall, inside wall. But still, if you have a sandstorm, it was kind of dusty.