<Begin Segment 11>

RP: Did you know where you were going to go next, after Santa Anita?

OM: Oh yeah, we knew we were going to Jerome.

RP: Do you remember how you reacted or the family reacted to that news?

OM: Well, we... I don't think there was any reaction one way or another. We knew we were going to go there so we just accepted it, you know. We knew a lot of people that were... that came from surrounding area were going there too. People who were in Southern California, particularly around Torrance, Lomita, they all kind of went to, in fact Long Beach too, went to Jerome. So not that we knew a lot of people when we got there, we were in Block 4, she remembers barracks and I don't remember that, all I know is Block 4. And the people that were in that block were from that area, Lomita, Harbor City, Gardena, I know a lot of Gardena people, Long Beach people, you know. And the neighboring blocks were the same. We lived in the boonies, right? We only had these three neighbors or whatever and rarely saw them but I don't think they were in... they might of left, like the flower people left early so I don't know where they ended up. A lot of people selected, they almost selected what camp they were going to go to by moving. See if you moved south of 99, for example, in Fresno, or not south, east... east of 99, you went to a certain camp. If you were on the west side, you went to another camp. So like her case... like her cousins, they knew that the Riverside people were going to Poston so if you wanted to go to Poston you moved there, you moved to Riverside, you know. So there was quite a bit of that selective, you know, choosing of the camp before you even went there. We didn't... my parents were not that informed, or they weren't that concerned about where they were going to go. They just let things happen. If you went there, you went there, you know. But a lot of people, they're using their brains, you know, trying to keep the family, you know, not family but relatives close.

RP: So tell us your first impressions of one, the camp, two, the surrounding environment that you found yourself in at Jerome.

OM: Well, I wasn't too impressed one way or another about the camp, I mean, when we first got to the barracks in Arkansas, I thought it was a little bit better than Santa Anita. Santa Anita you could tell it was temporary, I mean it was... the knots in the hole or... they didn't even bother. I remember the barracks that we were in, right next to us was a newly married couple. If you were a couple, you got a very small unit, whatever it was. And like we had seven in our family, we had a small unit and a larger unit. But this small unit, I mean, it was really, I mean knot holes like that, I mean, you know, and if you just hit it like that, it just fell off. So what we did was you put burlap and whatever to patch it, so it deadens the sound and all that. But when we went to Arkansas, I thought it was pretty well made. Evidently, the government, you know, through sub contractors or whatever, contractors, they got a pretty good product I thought. But the camp itself was located in a kind of swamp, a cleared out swamp. Because around the camp was a pretty high level... six or seven foot high levees, you know. And this area that we were in evidently, they must have drained it or something, you know. And then that's where they built it because these were built off the ground, three or four feet, three feet maybe. Because when it rains in Arkansas, it rains like... like no tomorrow, you know, it just floods. And then on one side, the side next to the road, where the main road is, and the railroad tracks, there was no levee there but on three sides there was a levee. And then within the camp, within the block itself, there was a slight levee with a channel dug so that the water could flow out. You know, to me I thought it was really isolated, the camp itself, it was square, maybe a mile square whatever, they had forty something blocks in it, I think around forty-six blocks.

And then they had a open space in the middle space in the middle of the camp that was supposed to be a school, which never came about because for some reason that camp was... after the questionnaire came out, because of the camp, maybe because of the people there, a lot of them must have signed "no-no" or whatever because they closed that camp and the remainder of the people went to Rohwer, Amache, wherever, wherever they wanted to go, they sent 'em. And they closed that camp within, within a year after we left. But to me, it was a pretty nice camp... not nice, but better conditions than Santa Anita for example. Although Santa Anita, the weather was better, you can't say anything else. Arkansas rained and it was cold, in winter time it got cold but summer time when it rains, oh man it's... I never seen rain like that before in my life. But, you know, when you say isolated, I think they had guard towers but I don't think, initially it might have been manned but at the end, I don't think it was manned at all. Because nobody wanted to go anywhere, where can you go?

I remember people saying, well, if you follow the railroad track you can leave town, you can, you know, naturally you can, wherever that thing leads you, you know. But it's thirty or forty miles to nowhere, you know. Jerome was, even today, I don't think there's anything there. We went several years ago, but there isn't a... if you wanted to buy a cup of coffee, you'd have to go into town. I don't where that town is, it's not in Jerome. It's really a desolate place. The only thing that's there is a guy that owned... if I'd known now... if I had known then what I know now, I would have gone in... he says you're welcome to come in, you know, not trespass but come in and see... the only that's remaining is a tall chimney that was probably for generation of electricity or whatever, you know. And that chimney is still there like a landmark. But it's way in, you have to go along this dirt road to the guy's house and then it's to the right. But right at the entrance, there's this, probably a fifteen foot marble memorial, whatever, designating camp, the camp, you know. I guess they had a ceremony or something but other than that, there's nothing there, you know. Rohwer, now on the other hand is much much more, she says it's circular but I think it's rectangular and it has numerous grave sites and memorials to veterans. Although, you know, when you think about the 442nd, they used to come to Jerome for R&R or whatever. And a lot of guys went from Jerome, they volunteered 442nd, and in fact one of the great leaders, or activists, Yuri, what's her name, Kochiyama, is from Jerome, you know. In fact she's from San Pedro. Her real name is Mary Nakahara but she's from... I can still remember her when she was active in the USO or whatever for the GIs, you know.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.