Densho Digital Archive - John Tomita Interview (denshovh-tjohn

<Begin Segment 14>

KP: What, so what other jobs did you do with the survey crew?

JT: Oh, we were running, see, Tule Lake was, they expanded that camp. And so we had to put the sewer lines and water lines so we had to survey the new lines and the... and then we had to put in the high school, so surveyed the school. And, and the, that warehouse, the big warehouse that... it was pretty big when I was there, but I don't know how big it is now. But it was pretty big.

KP: When did you, when did you survey in the warehouse area?

JT: It was toward, not, it wasn't done the first year. It was done about the second or third year that they start building the warehouse. Because the farmlands were producing so much that they want to ship the produce to other camps.

KP: So that's why there was also a rail line into there?

JT: Yeah, uh-huh. So I surveyed the, the building and the railroad, they had, you know the, it really technical but the, that...

KP: The radius of the turn?

JT: Yeah. And the railroad curve is different from a highway curve. We had to study and I... you know the one thing, in Tule I learned to study. I mean I, and because... I study one night and next day I'm laying that in. And so it was really a good experience for me. I didn't realize how much it really gave me confidence as far as engineering work was concerned.

KP: What about, you talked about, was it a water supply tank up on Castle Peak?

JT: Oh, yeah.

KP: When, when was that? What time period was that?

JT: Well, it was, it was the second year or something. Anyway, they, they didn't have a road up there. And during the winter they want us to survey a road in there.

KP: Let me step back. Who was your supervisor? Who was telling you to do this?

JT: Oh, well, Mr. Slattery, Slattery. I think it's Slattery. S-L-A-T-T-E-R-Y, something. Anyway, since I already... want us to survey the road and it was snowing and I wasn't gonna do it. I says that, "Hell, you can't push me." [Laughs] But, then when he, when he told us, "Yeah, well, you guys are fired." The crew that I had, they didn't want to get fired. It was, for them it was the first experience of the engineering work and they wanted to hang on to it. So they insisted on staying and for they, their sake I went out there and surveyed. And it was first time using that chronometer, I mean, to make...

KP: Chronometers measure what? What do they measure?

JT: Measure the grade. So, every, well, I was trying to make hundred feet but we measured every fifty feet. So that the, it would go in a certain grade. So we just follow the stake around the mountain on that grade so that it won't have a steep grade. Yeah, so, went around like that and went up to the hill.