Densho Digital Archive - Henry Nishi Interview II (denshovh-nhenry

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RP: Do you remember when your father came back to camp, what that was like to see him again?

HN: Well, it was, it was nice to see him, of course. And, yeah, it was...

RP: Did he talk much about, or at all about what had happened to him in the three months that he was gone?

HN: No. There was not much talk about, about that. It was...

RP: Did he seem like the same dad that you knew before?

HN: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I, you know, Manzanar, being what it was, the location compared to the other, like Amy, she was in Wyoming, which was, compared to, compared to Manzanar, Lone Pine, that's why they'd call Lone Pine... what did they call it? It was, it was much more luxurious as far as weather-wise. 'Cause like Heart Mountain, Wyoming, was just practically cold all year round, freezing cold. We enjoyed... it was hot in the summer months in Manzanar. But it was bearable.

RP: Did you go out of camp at all to fish?

HN: No, I didn't.

RP: Did you go out at all at any time?

HN: I wasn't, I wasn't interested, I wasn't interested in fishing at that time. It was only afterwards that I got involved in fishing. Yeah. I knew that there were people that really liked fishing and snuck out of camp to go fishing.

RP: Your father comes back into camp, returns to camp, and he begins growing a rose garden in one of the firebreak areas. Do you recall that at all?

HN: I don't, I don't remember that. I wasn't there, no.

RP: And then he began working the, the government said, "We'll pay you if you build a large park," Pleasure Park area, in Manzanar.

HN: Yeah, it was a, it was a sanctioned project, so immediately it was, it was a job. It was, it was a project, so anybody that worked got on the payroll which was twelve dollars, $12, $16, and $19. Yeah.