<Begin Segment 8>

RP: What were your thoughts when you were on the bus going to Manzanar? Do you remember what...

AT: It didn't really bother me 'cause I said, well, they must have a place for us. I mean, you can't just go someplace where there's nothing so...

RP: And so when you saw the camp for the first time...

AT: Yes. It was kind of a shock. But there were already people that we knew there. They were waiting for us to come so, so there wasn't that bad. And only thing is we had to, they had to get the cots ready and get the, they said something about filling the mattress with straws or something. Yeah. And one thing, we didn't have to cook. So for the women it was, it was pretty good that way, no cooking. Just watching over our kids.

RP: And you were assigned to what block?

AT: Eighteen. 18-1-2. Eighteen is the block. One is the first building in the block. And the 2 is the room. So we were in the first room they used for the, I don't know what, what you call it. It was sort of an office for the whole block.

RP: The block manager?

AT: Yeah. Block, yeah. And my husband was the block manager.

RP: When he first got there?

AT: Yeah.

RP: Was he assigned to that?

AT: Yeah.

RP: And do you remember what some of his responsibilities were as a block manager? What did he have to do?

AT: Well, they kept the toilet paper there. [Laughs] My son would love to go there. He said, "I'm gonna go get the toilet paper." [Laughs] And I guess whatever problems people had, they would go to the block manager. If like maybe the stove that they had set in there wouldn't work, things like that.

RP: Sort of like a troubleshooter?

AT: Yeah.

RP: He'd try to solve the problem?

AT: I think so. Uh-huh.

RP: Now, it was yourself, Henry, Bruce, and, and then your...

AT: And then another family, this Uyeda family, he has some, a store in Little Tokyo now. I think he had it before that too. Yeah.

RP: They were in the barrack room with you?

AT: Yeah, with two daughters, two a little younger than, no, older than my son.

RP: Kind of crowded in there.

AT: It was for one room. Yeah, I guess it would be a little bit bigger than this room.

RP: And your husband's in-laws also...

AT: No, they were in the next, they didn't put us together. They were put in... just a couple and then their family with two children too, they were grown children, high school aged children. So, yeah, well, maybe it's a good thing they didn't put in-laws together. [Laughs] There were no curtains or anything to divide the room so they, eventually they got screens. And the other family didn't stay as long as we did, they moved to another block.

RP: And Block 18 was mostly folks from Santa Monica, Venice?

AT: Venice, yeah, and West L.A.

RP: So you had a lot of acquaintances --

AT: Yes we did, uh-huh.

RP: -- and people that you were familiar with.

AT: A lot of people that my husband had business with too.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.