Densho Digital Archive - George Nakata Interview (denshovh-ngeorge

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MH: You talked about a soldier coming back to camp and having a parade for him. Do you by any chance remember the Honor Board that was put up at camp?

GN: I only remember the Honor Board, the Honor Roll having just gone by it a time or two and having someone explain to me why those names are on there. The thing that I think impressed me was that the board was fairly sizeable, sizeable in terms of not dimension but sizeable in terms of names. We're not talking about a handful of names, but there were quite a few names on there. I did not understand them all. It might say PFC or it might say staff sergeant or might have a rank, but they all had Japanese surnames, family names. And you might recognize one or two names on there, but I don't remember it clearly only that I remember going past and by and having the that board explained to me once or twice.

MH: In a same tone, we also had guards who were American soldiers. Do you remember too much about the guards that guarded our camp?

GN: Yes. At Minidoka, in fact, prior to Minidoka, we of course had MP, Military Police, walking up and down the aisles of the train that took us from Portland, Oregon, all the way to Twin Falls, Idaho. When we first entered the camp, you kind of, everyone kind of looks around. Yes, you see the barracks. Yes, you see the sagebrush. But clearly, you see the barbwire. You see in our case fairly close to our block was a lookout post, and there were soldiers in there with rifles or with machine guns. And as you later walked around camp, you saw several of these lookout posts, and I don't know the timeframe, but they were there every day at the beginning. And as the months went by and as winter came and went, later on, those same outposts had no soldiers. And perhaps at the main gate when we would get a pass to go out during the last year, we would see active military personnel. But clearly as I reflect on it now, the security was more loose or more reasonable and giving the, all the Japanese and Japanese Americans greater freedom to feel that they're not every minute looked upon, but can roam around the camp freely, and perhaps if you go outside, go to the swimming hole, walk to the water tower, go after greasewood, and in some cases, they would get passes to even go to a nearby community. So the military personnel was very, very apparent, and I don't think anybody missed them at the beginning. But clearly after a point in time, they were no longer there.

MH: You talked about passes. Did you ever leave camp for, you know, a period of time, go to Twin Falls or wherever and why?

GN: The only time that I remember vividly is when they allowed a group of us -- and we were not officially a Boy Scout group, but we were very similar. We learned crafts and we earned points and we had almost like a merit badge system. But there was a group of us, and they allowed our group to go what's called the Sawtooth Mountains, not too far from Sun Valley which is quite adjacent to Ketchum, Idaho, quite adjacent to Twin Falls. We were gone for a week, and we stayed in different cabins, and I think that every young person that went there will never forget that because that was their time out of camp. We all formed little groups depending on the building. One was the fox group and one was the coyote group and one was the wolf group and we had competition. We made things, we learned how, we went on swims. It was just a total week of camp, a camp away from camp if you will, but it was something that you wouldn't envision certainly in 1942 or '3. But as we stayed there in '43, '44, and the powers to be evaluated that these are not dangerous people and there is good behavior and they are contributing in that there are no disturbances, they allowed certain groups to go out. Other groups, yes, they went to Twin Falls. They went to Eden. They went to Jerome. Some of them went and stayed out permanently because they went to Salt Lake or Denver or wherever. But that was a time that in my case, we got an official pass to go somewhere really for recreational purposes, but again, a time that I hadn't thought about for many, many years until now that really was a truly enjoyable time. We had I guess things that most camps do. You have games and you have plays and you act out things and you tell the best jokes you can, and we have sing fests and we have group prayers. It doesn't matter what your religion is, each in his own word and own way. We ate together, we climbed and hiked together, we swam together and a truly enjoyable time for us. But that was my only memorable time that I got a pass and really went far away from Minidoka.