<Begin Segment 19>

RP: You got a, a chance to go out of camp to McGehee one time.

YW: Yes.

RP: Can you tell us about that?

YW: Yeah, the way that worked out was my dad knew the person that was driving the mail truck. We had to go out to McGehee because that was our biggest mailstop, where federal mail is delivered, so they go pick up the camp mail there and bring it in. When he heard about this he asked the guy if it was okay if he hitched a ride into McGehee with him. He said, "I don't see why not as long as there aren't too many of you." He said, "Well, me and my oldest son would like to try it." So we took this fifteen, twenty minute drive, or twenty mile drive, whatever it was, and the man went to pick up the mail and he told us, "Why don't you go to the ice cream shop and go get yourself some ice cream across the way?" So that's what we did. The proprietor probably was shocked to see Asian faces walk in ordering ice cream. [Laughs] Probably thought the prisoners escaped or somethin', right? But that was, I think, the one and only time I did that, but it was an interesting experience. I was a little hesitant and nervous about it. I said, "You do, you don't suppose they're gonna throw us in jail for doin' this?" "Hey, what are they gonna do?" Right? Kids.

RP: Right. Broke out of your security zone there and met the world.

YW: Right. So a lot of people started to leave the confines of the camp and a lot of the older people would go out fishing 'cause they loved to fish, and they'd find these fishing holes and they'd bring home garfish and things like that. They had to do something to kill time, so they would do that.

RP: And you would see these fish mounted on their, on their walls?

YW: Yeah. I wanted to see what he did, he said, "This is what I did." And I saw one when he caught it. It was, the darn things were tough, and you could see the teeth that it had. I thought, wow, you don't want to put your finger in there. And these guys would mount these things, and I thought, well, that's a nice hobby. Got to have to do something.

RP: There was some interesting creatures around Rohwer, the fish as well as the water moccasins.

YW: Water moccasins in the, in the water. Snakes, I guess. And then we had squirrels in the trees that we enjoyed watching. And I learned to eat pecans 'cause they, it was growing wild in the trees out in the forest, so pecans became one of my favorite nuts.

RP: How about those chiggers?

YW: I'm sorry?

RP: How about those chiggers?

YW: Awful. They would get into your groin and bite you 'til you quit. It hurts. It's embarrassing. You can't be scratching on your gonads all day, all night. [Laughs] But people say, "Chiggers? What are chiggers?" I say, "You'll know when they bite you." Yeah, that was awful. Between mosquitoes and chiggers, it was awful. But what can you do? That's the environment.

RP: What did you, as you lived in Rohwer, did you adjust and adapt to that change of climate and environment?

YW: I was still sick. It didn't matter. I was, turns out it didn't matter. I was still sick. And until I got out of there I was still doin' my thirty percent. I'd get sick about every third week and I'd be down for about four days.

RP: Just in bed all day?

YW: Yeah. You know what it is, you wheeze all day, and cough and wheeze, and to help with the cough and wheezing, there was medicine, but it's not as good as what it is today. The best they could do for us at the time was give us a liquid fluid medicine that we put in an atomizer, then you'd pump the atomizer and spray your throat. And that would give you relief for maybe half an hour, an hour at most. And that's no way to live. And I suffered like that through camp and through the seventh grade when I left camp, for about a year, and then all of a sudden it just stopped. I didn't take any new medicines or anything. It just quit. Thank goodness it stopped.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.