<Begin Segment 19>

SG: So where did most people spend their time at camp?

GA: They had, gosh, I don't remember that even. There was no public library or anything like that. They did have a movie house where they showed movies some nights of the week, not every night, but there was no lounging area, so people just spent their days in their rooms I'm sure just sitting on the bed. Of course, we had the mess room. You can go into the mess room with the table and the benches, but that's all they had in the mess room where you could sit, you know, these table and benches, that combination seat and table put together. You could not move the benches unless you move the whole table.

SG: So do you remember how you spent your days there, Mr. Azumano?

GA: Well, I used to work in an office, so I would go there. There, of course, you had a desk and chair. That's all I remember there. And of course we worked from about nine to about five or eight-thirty to five, something like that. And most people had something to do. They could work doing something if they wanted to, get sixteen or nineteen dollars a day, something like that.

SG: Were there any social activities to pass the time?

GA: Well, they had movies like I say. They had dances every once in a while. They had a... what do you call it, a store, what do you call these little stores?

SG: A general store?

GA: Pardon me?

SG: A general store?

GA: No. They used to call them canteens where you can buy candy and a few things like that, but it was a very small store. There was no seating area. So I don't recall any area where you can congregate and sit and talk, just your rooms.

SG: What kind of movies did they show at the movie house?

GA: I don't remember now.

SG: American movies mostly?

GA: American movies, yes. Now they could have had Japanese movies, too, but I'm not sure about that. You know, these people that used to bring the film around to the communities, those people also worked there, so I'm sure they had some ways to get those films, and I'm sure they showed some of those.

SG: And what were, you mentioned dances before, what were those like?

GA: No bands, it's just recorded music, and they would, I forgot where they would have these dances now. They didn't have any community halls as I remember. I don't know where they had those dances, maybe in the mess room moving tables. They did have dances every now and then. I don't remember what else young kids did in those days. I don't remember.

SG: Were there other things that people at the camp did to make their situation more livable?

GA: Somehow, they found these, some kind of shells in the fields, so ladies would make some kind of necklace out of them. But as far as making it more livable, I don't know what, well, some people did, make their own gardens. They had little dirt area in front of the doors, so they would plant flowers or vegetables and get the seeds somehow and plant their vegetables and flowers there. Some of the places looked very nice with the beautiful flowers. I don't remember anybody buying furniture to bring in. I don't know how you could make those places more livable. I don't know.

SG: Was there, did people engage in artwork or anything else?

GA: Oh, yeah. People who had talent did artwork, yes. I don't remember any shows, but, art shows, but they must have had something like that. The Japanese are skilled, some Japanese are skilled in calligraphy. I know they had those classes. I heard that in Utah, the Topaz camp, there was an artist called Obata. He was a famous man, famous artist, and he had classes in painting, art painting, but I don't recall anything like that in Minidoka. There must have been some people who had talent. Yeah, I do now recall some pictures being drawn about the camp by amateur artists in the camp, but I didn't, please remember, I did not stay too long in the camp. We went there in September of 1942. As soon as I got there, we went to work out in the fields, sugar beet fields. We had a team. There were several teams. The farmers on that area needed farm work, farm laborers, so they came to the camp to solicit farm laborers, and we formed teams to go out to work in the farms, sugar beet farms. I joined a team to work, and we didn't have to stay in the camp. We stayed in the farm labor camps outside of the camp. Farm labor camps are put together by the government where you could sleep and eat in the mess room if you wanted to and go out daily on the farms. Farmers would come every morning to pick you up. We did that.

SG: What was it like living in those labor camps?

GA: Well, here again, it's just one room with, several bunks in one room, just a sleeping facility is all it was and heat, little stove to keep the heat. That was all there was to it. Then there was a mess hall where you could buy your meals if you wanted to. We did that.

SG: Were these both men and women?

GA: Yes, yes, both men and women out to work on the farms.

SG: And both men and women stayed in these labor camps?

GA: Yes, yes. I'm sure the ladies stayed in separate rooms, but they could stay there.

SG: Were the conditions better in these labor camps than the internment camps?

GA: No. No. The rooms were filled with bunks. Instead of beds, there were bunks, you know, double deckers, so at least more people can sleep in one room.

SG: During this time you were there at Minidoka in the labor camps, what did you, what did you miss most about being in Portland?

GA: Oh, well, one thing of course is we got to eat in the restaurants. Most Japanese like Chinese food, so we missed that mostly, a great deal I think. Of course, when we got, when we were working in Twin Falls, we had the freedom all right, but still, we didn't have the freedom to go back to our homes on the Pacific Coast. We had to stay from the so-called boundary line that the government had created, so we still lacked that freedom. I think one of the things I missed most a great deal was, you know, every morning I read the morning Oregonian, and I couldn't do that over there. There's no, well, there was a newspaper all right, but I missed that morning paper. I don't recall anything else that I missed. Of course, I missed my automobile. That's one of the biggest thing you miss is your car.

SG: What kind of car did you have?

GA: A Pontiac, 1940 Pontiac. This is one that my father had bought at the time of my graduation, that was 1940. So that was a beautiful car for me. I don't remember anything else. It's very difficult for me to go way back there to try to remember some of these things.

SG: Do you remember how the guards, how you were treated by the guards in the camps?

GA: Oh, they treated us without any hard feelings. We got along very well. As a matter of fact, we didn't encounter them very much. We knew they were there, but we didn't have any encounters with them.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2003 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.