Densho Digital Archive - George Matsumoto Interview (denshovh-mgeorge

<Begin Segment 17>

KP: A couple more questions about, did you have any interactions with the guards?

GM: No. I seen some guards talking to kids and one of 'em even showed him his gun, so I was like, "Wow." But the only time we saw 'em was when they patrolled by jeep, but that was only for about the first year or so and then internal police took over, so we didn't see too many soldiers.

KP: Did you have much interaction with the WRA staff, Caucasian staff?

GM: No, not very much. The block managers took care of that. We had a block manager for each block and they would distribute the news and whatever, take care of the housing and...

KP: Also in your memoir, you talk a lot about a lot of names of the people that were in Block 18 and we've already kinda documented that, so I won't have you go through that. There's a name I'm looking for, I'm just wondering if you've heard of an Adelaine Asai. She was a hakujin woman who was in camp with her hapa daughter and family. Do you remember anybody like that?

GM: No, I never...

KP: Okay, I just, that's one of the questions I asked.

GM: Lazo, he was a Mexican guy.

KP: Where did you, did you know him, Ralph Lazo?

GM: Well, my, my brother went to class with him. He graduated from the same high school. I used to see him out walking around the camp. He lived in, in the Children's Village. They gave him a room there.

KP: And one more thing about the kitchens is you mentioned in your memoir that there was a woman in particular who worked as a waitress in the kitchen.

GM: Yeah, which one was that?

KP: That was Hiroko Ikkanda.

GM: Honda?

KP: Hiroko Ikkanda?

GM: Oh, Ikkanda, yes.

KP: She worked as a waitress.

GM: Yeah.

KP: What was that job?

GM: She just most of the time served or cleaned up around the kitchen.

KP: So in serving, that means serving at the front counter?

GM: Serving at the counter, yeah. They, they didn't take your order. [Laughs] People came, lined up, and then they, they stopped, so she would serve them coffee and tea, this kind of, if that's what you call a waitress.