<Begin Segment 20>

RP: How about your husband? You said he got sort of actively involved in the community and some of the politics at Poston. How about as far as religion goes, did he help set up the first Christian church?

NM: I think he was involved in that, yes. And then of course he was involved in the co-ops, setting that up and all. And working with the administration as an interpreter, so, so I don't know that he did anything special to organize things because he had to interpret most of the time.

RP: Did he interpret for the project director?

NM: Yes.

RP: Mr. Head?

NM: Yes, Mr. Head.

RP: So he had a relationship with him.

NM: He had a good relationship, yes. Mr. Head was a very kind gentleman actually and I think the residents there liked him. So far as you can like an administrator who's over you.

RP: There were a number of different factions in Poston, as there was in some of the other camps. You had the, you had the Nisei, the Issei, and then Kibei as well.

NM: Kibei.

RP: There was, always seemed to be friction between one group and another.

NM: Yes, uh-huh.

RP: Do you remember some of that?

NM: Well, of course they had the strike because of some of that I think. Some, some group was against the administration or against what the policy of their food situation, or something. They had some, some kind of grievance. But, yeah, as I say, I was mostly in the house. I didn't do much of anything. So, I wasn't aware of too much except that my husband was out all the time. And so, but he didn't come back and talk about what happened or what went on, so much.

RP: Some of the, some of the Nisei and also Kibei who were considered to be collaborating with the administration and in some cases there were charges of, that they were kind of spying on people.

NM: Yeah, the inu.

RP: Uh-huh, you said it. Some of those people were beaten up.

NM: Oh, I understand they were, uh-huh.

RP: Your, your husband being a religious man, did he offer any mediation or, or how did he fit into that, all that turmoil?

NM: I think he, well, as an interpreter, I don't know how much personal mediation he did. But I think he had to convey what the administration was facing and vice versa. That was more the kind of thing that he had to do.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.