Densho Digital Archive - George Matsumoto Interview (denshovh-mgeorge

<Begin Segment 20>

KP: One more thing about the materials in the camp, the, could you tell us a little bit about the cooperative store? You said initially the cooperative store was run by, it was like, who ran that originally?

GM: Originally it was done by Caucasian people and they turned it over to the internees.

KP: Was it military originally?

GM: Well, it started out as an army canteen, and when I first worked there, in the mess hall, they used to give me a scrip and it was only good to, in the canteen and all they had was razors and gum and candy and magazines, stuff like that.

KP: So that was your pay for your work?

GM: Yeah, it was a voucher. We used to, not a army, I mean government voucher, but it was just a regular... and then the army relinquished to a civilian unit, the WRA took over and, the camp, and the army disappeared. They went outside of the camp, so we didn't see too much of the army after that. But these white people, they, they organized it and then they turned it over, and I guess this co-op was pretty popular in the Midwest and the East, so they, they assessed us somethin' like five dollars a head for the initial start up and they started with a small canteen. It had soap and towels and stuff like that, and then they kind of expanded and pretty soon they had a barber shop and beauty parlor and, and they had meat and sashimi. You could get anything you, if you had the money. But most of the stuff was relatively cheap because the base pay was twelve dollars and if you were semi professional you got sixteen and professional, they got nineteen dollars. That was top for cook, or not cooks, but doctors and dentists and administrative people. And I got nineteen dollars because I was a head cook. Yeah, I think that paper I gave you, there's a copy of my, in the back...

KP: Copy of the scrip?

GM: It's in my assignment.

KP: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, with your pay grade. Nineteen dollars, yeah. Back to, you said you could get just about anything you wanted from the co-op store. What about the black market in camp?

GM: Oh, yeah, my timekeeper, he used to count the number of people that ate and stuff like that and he used to hand out the paycheck. He had a link with a part of the black market system and whenever I needed something out of the ordinary you couldn't buy in the camp, like chocolates or something, I'd tell him, "Hey, I know this girl who's having a birthday," and for a dollar, he'd give me a box of candy. He used to get it from Lone Pine or some place and there were people comin' in and out of the camp all the time, bringing things. Most of it was cigarettes and booze.