Densho Digital Archive - Karlene Koketsu Interview (denshovh-kkarlene-01-0018)

<Begin Segment 18>

RP: This is tape three of a continuing interview, oral history interview with Karlene Koketsu and, Karlene, there was a... you had quite an experience in camp, meeting up with one of America's most imminent photographers at the time, Ansel Adams. Can you tell us about how that all...

KK: Well, Toyo Miyatake had his little studio right in Block 30 where our classroom was, our fourth grade classroom. And we were waiting for school to start and standing there sort of trying to keep warm and this gentleman came and asked if he could take a picture of us and so he did. He seemed like a very big man, to me, but of course we were little kids. But that's me in the center and a girl named Sumiko and Eiko on this side. Eiko, there was a Maryknoll church in camp and she went to the Maryknoll, that's where she went so occasionally I went with her to catechism and I don't know, the last time I talked to you, I probably mentioned that -- thank you -- that they talked about the end of the world, and probably it might have been Revelations or something, I don't know, they talked about the end of the world and there was a very, very heavy windstorm and we both said, it must be the end of the world and so we hid. And I can't remember exactly where we hid but they couldn't find us so people were looking for us. [Laughs] But that was another memory from camp.

RP: When did you find out --

KK: Well, my mother had a copy of (the picture taken of the three young girls by Ansel Adams) from the time we were in camp. But it was a very small, with a white border and a small print. I haven't been able to find the original, must be amongst my boxes of pictures. But she had taken, purchased some other pictures that he had taken of camp, you know, the Alabama hills and the, I guess it's called Mount Williamson now. We always called it Mount Whitney but (they were referring to Mt. Williamson).

RP: So do a lot of people. How were you, if you were, affected by the landscape around the camp, especially the mountains?

KK: As an adult or --

RP: As a kid in camp.

KK: As a kid. I don't think I had any specific... you know when the cottonwood trees blow all that fluff, it was almost like a snowstorm at times, they were so heavy. I remember that and I remember that plant that we ate and there were many, many more trees up towards Block 33, 32 at that time that I remember. One of the things is that the trees meant shade in the summertime 'cause it was very hot. I don't know, I don't have any, I mean, in my mind's eye, I can still see, see the camp as it was but I don't have any profound recollections of how I felt about it.