<Begin Segment 11>

RP: Then you started working for Kado.

RK: Yeah, I worked, I worked for him all the rest of the time. At least two summers.

RP: Tell us, tell us what did you do for him?

RK: You know those two, two stone sentry posts, the guard and the police? Well, we built those. We built those. And the two, two entrance posts on the side, you ever notice two entrance? Those.

RP: Oh, that look like, they look like tree stumps?

RK: Yeah, tree stumps, yeah. And you know, have you noticed that in Manzanar, especially in the, in the mess hall areas, everybody had a pond. Have you ever noticed that? Well, I think Kado, he probably built every one of them. So we had...

RP: You were busy.

RK: We were, we were busy.

RP: So did you go out to, to collect stones for this...

RK: Yeah, you know those, those colored rocks? We went on White Mountain side, the White Mountain range? That side. The plain, granite like stones, we went on this side to get. It was a fun job. Yeah.

RP: And you were given a truck to go out and collect rocks?

RK: Oh yeah, sure, sure.

RP: Now did you have a, did you have an MP or an escort or somebody go with you?

RK: We had a driver, but no guard. No, I don't remember. I don't remember.

RP: How many, how many folks worked on the crew?

RK: Besides Mr. Kado?

RP: Besides Mr. Kado and you, who else do you recall?

RK: Oh, there were about eight of us, eight or ten of us. See, his son...

RP: Louie.

RK: Louie, Louie was, he sort of, sort of knew everything.

RP: So Louie kind of was...

RK: Yeah. He was the foreman.

RP: Foreman.

RK: [Laughs]

RP: Supervisor.

RK: Yeah. Mr. Kado, he was the boss.

RP: Do you remember anybody else on the crew besides Louie and his father?

RK: Oh, yeah, Tomotsu and Shig Nakahara, yeah, they were on there. But I don't remember...

RP: So you would go out to a place towards the Inyo & White Mountains there?

RK: That area. You know where Owens River is?

RP: And Mr. Kado would go out and point out boulders or...

RK: Yeah, he would tell us what kind of rock to gather. And we would. And we would, yeah.

RP: And these rocks, some of these were heavy.

RK: Heavy, sure.

RP: Did you have any type of a lift or a crane on the truck? Or would you just use your...

RK: Oh no, no. We'd just lift it. Yeah.

RP: So while you were out that way, did you ever fish the Owens River at all?

RK: No, we got those, no... most of the ponds, they had carps. You know, we'd catch the carp and bring 'em in.

RP: And dump them in the ponds?

RK: Yeah. Big carps, huh?

RP: Did you collect those with garbage cans or, how did you get it?

RK: Nets, usually.

RP: Just nets?

RK: Yeah.

RP: And then you'd bring the rocks back and, did you, you mixed the mortar right there on the site?

RK: On site, and place it in. Of course, Mr. Kado, he was in charge, you know.

RP: Right.

RK: He, he'd build the forms and we'd just place the rocks in.

RP: Uh-huh. How about the, the tree stumps? Do you remember how those were made?

RK: Oh, yeah. Mr. Kado made those.

RP: Can you tell us the process he went through?

RK: Well, it was, I really think they were made out of colored cement. Colored concrete, cement. How he, how he managed the color, I don't know. But he had a knack of making it look like a log or whatever. He was good at it.

RP: He was good at it.

RK: Yeah.

RP: He put in the lines.

RK: Yeah, he put in the lines and everything else.

RP: Knotholes.

RK: Yeah, he'd make a log that looked like a log. [Laughs]

RP: Do you recall how long it took to build the sentry posts?

RK: The whole summer. [Laughs] The whole... the building anyway.

RP: Just the rock work?

RK: Yeah, it would take us, I would recall the whole summer, the two sentry posts anyway.

RP: There was another sentry post built down at the military police camp, which was just south of the large camp that you were in.

RK: Yeah, I don't remember that though.

RP: You don't remember--

RK: I just remember the --

RP: The two.

RK: -- the military one and then the one where the police department was.

RP: Uh-huh.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.