<Begin Segment 15>

RP: So what was it like when you get to Manzanar and there's thousands of Japanese?

MS: Yes. The numbers of the black heads around me was quite a shock. I had never seen that many. [Laughs] But, yes, and then we filled our bags with straw they way we have to.

RP: Do you remember getting shots?

MS: Oh, yes, later we got shots and I got sick. I was sick with the... I rarely get sick in my life and I can't even remember ever being sick like that. But I was sick for at least a week and it really hit me. And, partly, because I think now that I look back on it, many of the shots really were doses for men, and Japanese, you know, we're small and the fact that I had never taken any medications of any kind. I don't even remember taking aspirin. The only time I ever took anything was if I had tooth work done and I had reactions to that. But, so I was down for a good week, at least a week.

RP: Do you remember what you brought to camp with you?

MS: I remember, I remember goggles and the, we were told, definitely, to get handkerchiefs, the, to tie around our faces. And, let's see, what else? Well, they gave us peacoats, or whatever they call them. They were army, heavy wool coat, and that was good.

RP: You bring anything special with you other than the, you know, usual clothing?

MS: You know, the only thing that I can remember having in camp that was really unusual, really, my carving tools. And, which now, I think back on it, I probably shouldn't have had carving tools. And I don't know whether, and I don't think I would have put them in the middle of my duffle... I had brought a duffle bag. Because I think my brothers said they're lighter and you can pile more things in. Now that I think about it, they would be less apt to be looked at thoroughly than... it's easier to look through a suitcase then through a duffle bag, because you have to, everything is rolled up and... But, it's probable that maybe my brother brought them in the car, you know.

RP: Paul.

MS: Yes. Because later, I remember teaching woodcarving and so I had to have, I had to have tools.

RP: Do you remember soldiers going through people's luggage and affects when you got off the bus? Being...

MS: I don't remember. I don't, I don't remember any, when I got off the bus. The only thing I remember is filling... it was late at night. Which is possibly why, very late. And, so we just practically went straight to bed. And that was when we encountered the problem that we would have three families in one room and with, had no furniture except the beds, the beds. So we arranged the beds so that we would put the blankets between, and...

RP: Do you remember which block you were assigned to? I know you ended up in Block 32, but they were still building the camp.

MS: That, that might have been it. Because that's all I can remember. I thought I'm either in 32 or 33 and so, it was 32. And there was a big cottonwood tree, is the only thing that I can remember that was there. 'Cause it was, the camp was very barren. You know, it had no trees at all. It didn't have the trees like it has now. [Laughs]

RP: On the, on the train trip up to Manzanar and then the bus ride as you're coming in close to the camp, did you have any expectations or any ideas or were you just completely uncertain as to what you were gonna see when you got here?

MS: Oh yes, completely uncertain. And I don't think we saw that much 'cause it was pitch dark.

RP: So how did, how did the appearance of the, you know...

MS: Except --

RP: -- the next morning when you woke up and saw the camp, how did that affect you?

MS: -- yeah, that was, well, that was pretty bleak. Actually, it was pretty bleak when we went into the room. But, yes... but fortunately, it wasn't as dusty, I mean, it wasn't as windy and dusty then. Although later, we did have a dust storm that was so heavy, I'll never forget that one. That I couldn't see the, the building next to us. It was just, just kind of blended in with all of that. But usually dust storms were not that heavy. It's, uh-huh. But you did have to keep covered, your eyes and your nose.

RP: Where was your, the rest of your family in the camp?

MS: Well, they actually weren't too far away, so that, uh-huh. My brother, I think they were in the same block but in different buildings. Since they were what, ten barracks or so in the...

RP: Fourteen.

MS: Fourteen in the block, all together.

RP: So they were in the same block as you?

MS: Yeah, they were, yeah, far in the lower end and I was in the upper. Or, I was towards the mountains.

RP: How did you, how did you come to, to teach here in the camp?

MS: Oh, yes, they made, they sent out a call, they needed to have teachers, anyone who had any kind of college would be able to teach elementary school. So, since I had had two years, teachers... now I think the pay scale at that time, I think was twelve, sixteen, and nineteen. But I'm not sure. Was that right? Uh-huh. So I got sixteen, as a teacher, a month, and sixteen dollars a month. And, so I showed up. Well, I tried to prepare, but there was very little that I could prepare because there were, there was no equipment. We had no chairs, no tables, no, nothing to write with. [Laughs] So, so we just, the first class we sat on the floor. Now, we had four classes in one barrack. And there were no partitions, so we had to hang blankets between the classes, but you obviously could hear what was going on in the other classes. And it made a very difficult teaching and learning situation. So I remember that if it got a little bit too noisy from the class next to us, I would say, "Well, it's time for our nature study." And we would walk out the door and walk the grounds. I don't know what we did for nature study, but we did. And then we sat on the floor and I tried to give them a little arithmetic. I scrounged paper, I think, from the kitchen, and used it as a chalkboard. I had already written to friends in town to send as many pencils and paper or crayons or anything. So I did get some, but not much.

RP: These were friends who were teachers?

MS: In Los Angeles.

RP: In Los Angeles?

MS: Uh-huh.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.