<Begin Segment 13>

RP: So you got there, you got into Manzanar at midnight.

IK: At least midnight. It was just darker, just dark. I followed Harry in his car, parked next to him. I, none of us knew where we are, so we sort of followed the guy in front of his, and somebody led us to the camp, where the barrack was. We stumbled into the barracks with no electricity. I think we had a flashlight, or somebody did. And so we fell to, on the blankets we had on our army cot with springs, and that was our first night.

RP: You talked about the promise of helping build the camp, and you had some of, you brought some carpentry tools up. Did you, what other information, if any, did you, were you given about Manzanar, or were there any rumors that were going around about what was...

IK: No, we were all dumb with... we couldn't even build the, rumor, we didn't where we were, what we were doing or what we were supposed to be doing. So we just wandered around like a bunch of leadless ants. And, "Hey, what do you know? What do you hear?" Everybody asked everybody what's happening. Nobody knew. Nobody bothered. When we were, we were now captured. We were in camp.

RP: Can you describe what the scene looked like, those next few days? As far as the construction of the camp and...

IK: Well, there were nothing but ditches and hammering of the, the Caucasians building the place, and us just roaming around. We didn't know where the limits were or where the lines were, so we just walked where we felt like, and we didn't want to walk anywhere else 'cause we didn't know where we were. So it was just confusion, but nobody give a, give a damn really, 'cause we're here and that's as much as we knew.

RP: So you made an effort to try to talk to the Caucasian...

IK: No. It was their obligation.

RP: Nobody came over and...

IK: Well, we did not have a leader in our group, and so we're there. So if they're not gonna say anything, what are we, what do we say? We're not in a position to demand anything.

RP: How did you feel... again, the promise obviously was not being kept.

IK: We just know it's not being kept and that's it. I accepted it. I didn't care 'cause we couldn't go. What good did we care? It's no purpose.

RP: You wandered around a little while, then you actually met up with one of the sentries?

IK: Well, the only way we did that was we took baths at the pipe, main pipeline, so that was their, one of their lines of sentry. And we got to talkin' with them 'cause we get bored of talking with each other that didn't know anything, and that's how our little group, our Niseis, we just start talking with these guys. 'Cause they were, wanted to talk also. They were bored. So we just walked there, peeked around the camp and that was like a radio that you'd listen to when you wouldn't listen. And so that's how we got acquainted.

RP: And this, this sentry was an African American?

IK: Yes, yes. And we, I didn't pay any attention to that stuff 'cause I was accustomed to seeing different colors and stuff. They weren't anybody different than I, until their deep Southern accent came across. Then I knew they were different people. They spoke a, if you'd never heard it you'd think they were speaking a different language. And their, their slang was very... well, that's all I can say. Slang. And that's their whole vocabulary.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.