<Begin Segment 17>

RP: So what did you do at Topaz?

TH: Oh, at Topaz, I did get a job. I was working as a clerk typist in a warehouse office. And so I worked for my sixteen dollars a month.

RP: Your father also, father and mother...

TH: My father was, worked as a camp carpenter. And so he had privileges like getting scrap lumber, so he made us furniture. And my mother worked in the mess hall, and so she got used to the idea of people handing out, walking by with plates and looking like we need a handout. And of course Jim was a student, Kei was a student, and my sister and I both worked as clerk typists.

RP: In the warehouse?

TH: In the warehouse office, yes.

RP: So you worked with some of the administration, Caucasians who...

TH: I had no contract with any of the administrators. Oh, my supervisor was a Caucasian man, (Mr. Bennet) from the town of Delta, a very nice man.

RP: Was that the only Caucasian you --

TH: That was the only contact.

RP: Did you have a social life in camp at all?

TH: Oh, camp, we had our dances, we went to the movies, we did our shopping at the canteen, and we had our... people our age, my age, so I met a lot of people my age. So I had a little social life.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.