Densho Digital Archive - George Iseri Interview (denshovh-igeorge

<Begin Segment 17>

AC: So how long was your dad interned?

GI: Six months.

AC: Six months. And in that time, the entire family was moved down to Pinedale, the relocation center, and then you were moved to Tule Lake. When did your father, when was your father reunited with your family?

GI: In June of 1943.

AC: When you were down in Tule Lakes?

GI: Pinedale.

AC: You're in Pinedale. So how was it, can you describe what was it like being in Tule Lakes?

GI: Oh, I don't know. It's a kind of a funny feeling because we, I was an office manager for the packing shed. We shipped vegetables and fruit out to all the other camps, and the other camps would send us food and stuff that we didn't have. We grew some wonderful, they had rutabagas that, rutabagas and turnips that big. They hollowed them out and used them for hats for the farm festival in the fall. I didn't get to see that, but that's what they told me. We were allowed to go out of camp because our farm, camp farm was down the road seven, eight miles. So we had a car to, not to my private disposal, but my boss and field men had the cars and all. We got to do things like... because one thing they didn't allow was liquor in the camps. And because they wouldn't allow it, we, well, wanted to get them, drink, because what the hell, we got nothing else to do, you know. And we had friends working in the post office. And somebody that went out on a contract would say, "Hey, you guys want a bottle of whiskey? I'll send you a bottle of whiskey." "Yeah, sure, send us a bottle of whiskey." So I got friends in the post office. There'd be whiskey bottles come in in a carton marked "candy," and our friends in the post office knew right away what it was, and it was whiskey. So they just clear it through and give us the whiskey. That was as far as alcohol is concerned.

I had a good friend that his name was Tomio Itabashi. His sister Frances Nishimura lives here in Ontario yet today. He's the guy that when we were in high school, he's a couple years older than I was, he was quite an artist, and so he got me released from studies to help him paint the murals and things and the stage. But anyway, he became a block manager of the next block where my wife and I lived, see. Each block had about twenty or twenty barracks and then there was a block manager for each block kind, that kind of took care of supplies and problems in the block and things like that. Well, he was one of them. One day, we went to his apartment. He told me, he told us, "Okay, come on over and visit me. I want to show you something." So you know in our barracks, the main thing we had were beds there see and mostly army cots. He said, "Come here." So he went and sat on his army cot, and he reached under the bed, pulled out a chamber pot, took the lid off and gave us a cup and said, "Here, have a drink." [Laughs] And of course, just like you guys right now, whoa, wait a minute. You can imagine what it looked like, too. And he said, "Wait." He said, "Oh, you okay." He says, "You okay." About time I tell you, make you guys feel better. These are brand new pots. He says, "That's what I use to give out, they came in cartons, and I know they're new so don't worry about it." So we had a drink of wine out of this chamber pots. That about took the cake as far as experience and stuff like that.

But we didn't feel so locked up. I don't feel like we were in prison so much until you just stop to think of it, to think about it. We got together in the evenings and we'd play poker. The lights would go out once in a while. Well, we pass the flashlight around to play poker. We used to, in our area, the packing shed was, lots of lumber came in, and I don't know why. I don't know what they used the lumber for. They had some about 2 by 24, big thick ones like that, and we knew where they were, and there's other lumber there, well, we'll just go borrow some of that. So we'd get one of our farm trucks, and we'd load up some lumber, take it out to the barracks. And my brother got some too, and he made furniture out of it, and I made some furniture out of it too. That is not much, but a stand and things like that. But you know, a little bit dishonest maybe, but hell, it's a camp. It's our camp. What the hell? Let's use the stuff, you know. There was an awful lot of things like that that I think that the government really was lax over. We just got a feeling, well, it's ours. Hell, we'll just take one of those home, whatever it was, wasn't stealing nothing. We didn't hide it from anybody, and it was too bad, but that type of, it wasn't good, but I suppose it's just like a guy works in a restaurant, you know. If you got some leftover food, it's probably going to get thrown out. Well, there's nothing wrong. One of the airplane companies, United or TWA here a while back, some stewardesses were taking some leftover cookies or something, they got raked over the coals over that. But those were some of the experiences that we went through, and we use quite of an expanse of building and things, you know. If I had to walk to work, I would imagine I'd walk a mile to go to work.

The one side of the camp story that perhaps people don't think about, especially people who are in camps, were not in camps, wouldn't have known unless they heard about it. But you take like my brother Carl who's ten years younger than I and then there was three brothers about that age, it was a picnic for them. They had no more chores to do to speak of. They didn't have to help cook or wash dishes or anything. All they just do is play. So when you get some kid, like my brother who is ten years younger than I was, their story wasn't so bad. We had a good time, you know. It could possibly be their answer. Now, remember I was talking about the going and delivering groceries and taking orders and things like that, there were some families who I know had some real tough times that used to be our customers. They finally, being in camp, they got some relief, no more bills to pay, and that was welcome relief to them, so, and I know they were very thankful. But of course, that still didn't justify being inprisoned like that. So there's some, what would you say, lighter sides to the story too. There's some dark sides to it.