<Begin Segment 12>

RP: There were, in your barrack you said you occupied Room 2? And then your in-laws were in the next room?

AT: Yeah.

RP: Do you know who lived on the last unit?

AT: Yes, this family called the Andos. It was a widow with two daughters and a son. And I think they had a couple. When we first went into camp, every room had two families, I think, except the bachelors. They're put separately.

RP: Did you for any reason have to use the hospital or have medical service at the hospital?

AT: No, no surgery, but it just, I had a bad case of hay fever and so I went there to get a, some medicine that helped.

RP: Was that from all the hay in the mattress?

AT: (No). It's the one that my father-in-law planted right in front of the door.

RP: What, what was it he planted in front of the door?

AT: Gee, I knew the name at one time but I don't know what it is. It had a lot of pollen.

RP: Was it cosmos?

AT: Yes, that's what it was. That was really bad. I couldn't breathe at all. And I didn't like the idea of breathing through my mouth all night. So after I got the medicine I slept all through and (Bruce) was, he was yelling that he had to go to the bathroom. I just slept right through it. [Laughs]

RP: And your father-in-law had to tear out all the...

AT: Did I what?

RP: Your father-in-law tore out all the cosmos?

AT: My husband made him. And he wasn't, he was out, I think he was, might have been in Idaho, I don't know. So I had to bear with it by myself.

RP: Where was that, was there any other landscaping around your barrack?

AT: Yes, right behind, the back side, they put a lawn in there which made it very nice.

RP: Did you have any trees around too?

AT: I don't think I remember seeing many trees. 'Cause between the barracks is that road. So the, they couldn't plant anything there.

RP: Uh-huh.

AT: But the Japanese are, a lot of them are gardeners and so they made it livable anyway.

RP: Uh-huh. And we talked about the mess hall. Did, did you eat, did all of you eat together --

AT: Yes, uh-huh.

RP: -- when you had meals?

AT: We could eat in other mess halls if you wanted to but usually the same people went to the, the one closest to their, to them.

RP: How about the restrooms? They were called latrines? The bathrooms?

AT: Well, at first they had no partitions. No, just, just open toilets and even the shower was just a open space. Although, oh, I think it was later that they had those Japanese baths where they soaked. But I don't, it's just the Isseis, the older people I think used those. But the women hated the showers and a lot of them had their underwear on while they took the... I don't think they ever partitioned it. As long as I remember it was just --

RP: The showers?

AT: -- open. Yeah. The shower.

RP: How about the toilets?

AT: Yeah they... but I don't remember them putting doors on it. They just were partitions. And then at night when you have to go, it's quite a ways. You have to walk up the hill and it's cold. So I think some people had cans in their rooms so they didn't even have to go out.

RP: And you lived in Block 18 and right above you was a guard tower. Do you remember that?

AT: I don't remember seeing a guard tower although the pictures all show them. I remember a plane fell right, very close to... see, we were in, was it 18? I guess we were the one above, above the fence, near the fence. 'Cause I know we all rushed to see and wasn't there a sort of a, I don't know whether you'd call it a school or something, for the people that wanted to fly planes. Something across the...

RP: It was an airport.

AT: Oh, an airport. Oh, is that what it was? Oh. I never got to see it so I, I don't know what...

RP: Did that plane crash inside the camp?

AT: No, outside, just out, very close to the edge though. So we were able to see if he was really hurt. I think he was hurt badly. And some of us were afraid it was gonna crash into our, you know, barracks.

RP: Did you attend any church in the camp?

AT: No. No. I think they, or did they? I don't know whether they had it real early. I think it was built a little later.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.