<Begin Segment 8>

RP: What were your first impressions of the camp itself when you arrived?

RD: I tell you, it was quite a shock there, you know, to see the camp there and everything else. And I didn't really know why they were there, 'cause the Germans weren't there, they didn't put the Germans in the concentration camp, but they did the Japanese. Maybe they thought they were more of a threat, I don't know. But of all the people that I met in there, they're going out through the gates, and the young people in there, they all seemed real nice. I know one time, they'd usually go in, I don't know how many times a year, go in and inspect all the barracks, all the rooms and stuff with Japanese, look around for contraband and stuff like that, go through everything they had. And they were all little small places, you know. I didn't think too much of that, I wasn't sure about that at all. And I only worked on the main gate once or twice.

RP: Can you tell us about the MP camp? Describe how it was laid out to your best memories.

RD: Well, I don't know, it's pretty hard to say. As we come in, they had like little, little building there where they, where a guy was on duty to check people coming in and out. And on your right-hand side was a line of barracks, I mean, there were seven or eight or nine, I don't remember, that was our barracks. And then on the other side was the headquarters and then the latrine was there and then the little guardhouse behind that and then we had a grenade range behind that, and then all around out there was the fields and stuff where they grew watermelon, cantaloupe, and different vegetables and stuff. We took turns on guard duty, we were four hours on and four hours off.

RP: Let's talk about that. You spent a lot of time in the towers, didn't you?

RD: Yes. Like I said, we were four hours on, four hours off.

RP: Tell us, maybe kind of describe a typical day from the time you woke up and what, what happened during that day.

RP: That I don't know. I don't know what we did during the day, I guess we did some marching and stuff and did some type of training. We went out to the rifle range and like I said, we had those Enfields where we were trying to fire for, to see what marksmanship. There wasn't too many of us that passed shooting the Enfield, but we took care of it, we made sure everybody passed, you know. Instead of putting the drawers up there, the red one up there, we'd put it up there and put it so most of us passed that way. I could hit the target, but they weren't that good. And I can't remember, I guess I didn't get the [inaudible] until I got to the infantry.

RP: Did you, do you recall Thompson submachine guns? Thompson, Thompson automatic weapons?

RD: No. We didn't get into too much of that until I got to the infantry. All we had was, I remember rifles and I guess they, I don't remember seeing any machine guns or any automatic weapons of that type.

RP: Did you get any type of an orientation to your duties before you actually started at the towers?

RD: If we did, I don't remember.

RP: How did you get over to the towers from the military camp?

RD: Oh, they hauled you around in a jeep. They had the CQ, the guy who was on duty, had a corporal of the guard and sergeant of the guard, different shifts, and then we had a few days off and then you'd be back on again. And when we were on duty, it was four on and four off.

RP: Was there, did you work in every one of those towers, or were there particular towers that were assigned to you?

RD: Well, no. I don't know whether I hit 'em all, but I hit most of 'em, I think, different times. I was mostly on the back end around there. They had towers up front, on this side and that side, then they went all the way around. And I'm usually on the side there, in the back towers, mostly.

RP: You worked both day and night shifts?

RD: Yeah. Like I said to you, I forgot how many days we do that, couple, three days in a row, I guess. You'd be on four hours and off four hours, then on four hours then off, around the clock, twenty-four hours.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.