<Begin Segment 22>

RP: Isao, since you were there in the very first week of camp construction and you went through all, some of the earlier hardships of life there, what were the biggest changes that you saw in the camp from those days that you first got there to when you, when you left?

IK: Well, by the time I left camp the whole camp was covered with tarpaper. Nothing was on the floor. And there were the things that the captives or tenants, they were building Japanese gardens and such. They were developing what, what they had their interests and talents in, and the change, changing was very quick, 'cause they were not, they were not used to just sittin' around, either. But they had started to make yards with grass, which they would buy from, I guess Sears or some place, through the mail. And the swimming pool I was supposed to build was never done, but they, they planted a lot of trees and things like that. I, you can imagine what it was going to be like. It was going to be a very nice place, except for the principle of it all, that the... we had leveled out basketball courts and football places, and I think there were -- yeah, there were routine, I mean... what do you call it when it's team, different teams around playing each other, so on. Baseball teams and football teams, basketball teams. And among people they formed clubs, as they did, have in Los Angeles, social clubs. They traded parties, making dances off of records that many kids smuggled in, the offspring, at the start. And I guess cliques formed, as people do. Oh, and they had started a golf... the, I didn't see the golf course, but I know my wife, current wife, who is, recently passed away, but she learned how to play, start playing golf in, on the sand. So those were some of the improvements, I guess.

RP: So there were plans to build a swimming pool?

IK: The only swimming pool I would know would be the reservoir. I think it's towards the mountains. 'cause I took the crew up there.

RP: Right, that was an interesting story, too, about, about some of the fishing experience that...

IK: Yeah, the, what I didn't, the first trip I didn't know where it was, so they had to guide me. So I drove this truck in between rocks bigger than the truck, and I'd never seen those rocks or never, haven't seen them since, but above there someplace was the... this crew dug this hole and made a reservoir. And soon as I, they told me how to get there, I parked. They said park there. I parked there and they all jumped off, went right to a spot and started fishing. And they all seemed to own their each spot. And so that's all they did was fish, and they're supposed to be workin', but I guess that was their job, keepin' it clean.

RP: Did you, did you fish at all while you were there?

IK: No, I was not a fisherman. I just watched, walked around. But that's the only pool that I know when, with my stay.

RP: And you had this great sort of swimming background, too, and fortunately in camp there was --

IK: I had enough to be a lifeguard, anyway, but that would've been quite a... I didn't know that I was supposed to start a swimming pool. Hell, I was just a lifeguard, not, not a builder. No, I just didn't have enough incentive to do that stuff.

KP: Where were you supposed to build that swimming pool?

IK: Nobody said. He just says, "Well, I appoint you." And this was the, I think his name was Nielson.

RP: Roscoe Nielson?

IK: He was the head of my department.

RP: Recreation department?

IK: Yeah. I don't know what he did, because he didn't, he didn't form the football or the baseball... I think he furnished the ping pong table. That's as far, far as I know.

RP: So you worked for him, or the recreation department?

IK: Yes, but that was at the very first and nothing happened, so I got a job running the cement mixer, and then later the truck.

RP: The truck, you... this is the truck that you drove out of...

IK: Yeah.

RP: And what did you, what did you do? Where you bringing food to the mess halls or...

IK: No, I don't really know what I did do. I did drive it around a few days and that's... oh, I did run through the tests they gave me for driving the truck, and I don't know whether it was supposed to teach me how to drive a truck or what, but I think I surprised him that I could double check, double shift down into compound. And he, well, he didn't, no, he didn't do it that style. I said, "Well, I don't do your style." But I could, I was a good driver, so that's... I don't remember what I did except take the crew up there at the reservoir. And I just didn't do that very long, either.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.