<Begin Segment 11>

RP: You said earlier that you, that once a year, the barracks, the rooms would be searched for contraband?

RD: Well, more than that. I don't know how many times they did that. But I know one time that I was there, I was, I only went on it once. But they were going through the camps, probably, well, they did it every month, every couple of months or so, I can't remember.

RP: And was it mostly military police who conducted the search?

RD: Oh, yeah, all of us that went in there and went around, and we didn't carry any firearms or anything.

RP: So you were actually, you would go into the room and you'd --

RD: Yeah, look all around looking for something.

RP: You never found anything?

RD: Nope.

RP: What did... did you have any feelings about searching people's rooms?

RD: Yeah. I didn't like it at all. And then I was hoping I'd never have to go in there and do it again. It's just kind of... I don't know how you express it, but the way you see they're living and everything else, and have people come in there and tell 'em what to do and what they can't do and then going through all their stuff and everything else.

KP: One of the guard towers was right above the baseball field. Did you ever watch baseball games while you were up there?

RD: I don't remember any baseball field. Did Bob say anything about a baseball field?

RP: I don't know if we actually asked him or not.

RD: I don't remember any baseball field. I know we went to Independence, and where we played there, I don't know, some grounds, there was a little ballfield, whether it was attached to the high school or something, it's just dirt and everything else out there. Not much grass, I can remember.

KP: There were a lot of sports in the camps that the internees played. Did you ever see any of those games from your guard position?

RD: Oh, you're talking about the schools and stuff?

RP: In the camp.

RD: No, we would horse around, I don't know whether we... I can't remember whether we had anything there to do anything or not. I noticed they furnished some equipment, gloves and stuff, and the bats, maybe we played a little ball around there, but I know we went to town and played ball a little bit. We played basketball with some of the townspeople down there. In fact, we had, one night I think we had some of the people from the preflight school come there and play basketball.

RP: Flight school?

RD: Yeah.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.