<Begin Segment 5>

RP: Well, let's talk a little bit about your, your experiences at the Children's Village. You said that you had a, a few people or maybe one individual that kind of was like a, maybe not a father figure, but somebody who maybe gave you a little more attention and care. And who is that? Do you recall?

DB: Sure. But let's get some reference. The way the orphanage was designed was to have three sections. And one section for small children. These were children in diapers and, and maybe five years old, up to five years old. And that was of course mixed. I mean we, we could put little kids together. Then the next level was, I'm going to say probably around the fifth grade level. So you had the primary kids in the one area. Then the next grade level up to like around the fifth grade. And then the next grade level, and then finally the last grade level which was the near eighteen year olds. And our, our barracks were arranged so they were all interconnected. And in the center of the barracks was our counselor's office. And I call him a counselor because I don't know what else but he was a counselor to us. And his name was John Nagayama. And John was our director. He was our disciplinarian. He just, we all, at least I identified him and I identified that he was a fair person. And so he made, in my opinion, he made the camp... his wings were the fifth grade up. So he made that, that group of boys accountable and did it in such a manner that we wanted to please, or at least I wanted to please more than I wanted to be difficult. Although I had that time, I had those times too. I think you'll find that hard to believe.

RP: Tell us what was, how were you difficult?

DB: Well, I was always kind of a, well... let's put it this way, always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. And, if I was there I became associated with whatever it was. For instance, we went out and robbed watermelons. Because remember that Manzanar was a rich agricultural area, and the citizens there raised the food to feed the ten thousand incarcerees. And we'd go out, we'd try to steal their watermelon. When it, when it was Christmas time, I don't expect you to know about this, but the Japanese Christmas time is a very sacred time. And one of the things that we did is they, we made up what was called mochi balls, which is a combination of a pounded rice which breaks down all the connecting fibers, and you mold 'em into a ball and you add radishes or whatever you want. And they're very excellent delicacy. But it takes a little time to do it. They were not intended to be baseballs. But as you can figure out, there were a few of us that thought that was what they were for. Now, we knew better. I mean, it wasn't a case of ignorance. We knew better, but we just were going to do that. And that's the type of thing that I'm talking about. I was never a, we had, we had the police department and I was never in trouble with the police, but I was only seven years old so you wouldn't expect me to would you? So that's what I'm talking about. We'd sneak off and try and go fishing. There were some creeks up there and, and as I recall the first few times we had to sneak around the tower guards. But I hope nobody ever finds us out. There were on several occasions after we'd been sneaking across, where we would get the high sign from the tower that we could proceed. And you only had to go out of the confines just a little bit. But, that's a significant fact that, that we would just get waved on.

RP: In reading one of your previous interviews, you mentioned that there were occasionally blackouts in the camp.

DB: Yes.

RP: How did those affect you as a, like seven year old kid at the time? Was it extremely frightening or something you just got used to?

DB: I think it's something we got used to. The sad part, the sad part in my life in that period of time was the fact that we were having these blackouts and the official, official word was, "We're practicing." My research has shown that the truth of the matter is that at one time there was a period of time in which there was a conflict between our citizenry and the military over some problem, I think it was in a mess hall or something. It was something like that. And there was rioting and there were I believe two deaths. And, that's, that was what was causing the blackout. Not, "Well, we're just practicing." Now that's what my research has told me, now that I'm, you know, work on those kinds of things. I suppose one could argue that the government has a reason for secrecy, but I don't know. I just... one of the values which, which I have embraced and I don't know why or how, but I have, and that is that you try to be honest and truthful.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.