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LT: So Minidoka, in the fall of 1942, your new home, with you and your mother and your five brothers and sisters. Can you tell us, what did Minidoka look like in terms of how it was arranged as a camp?

GT: You know, I never gave that a thought. I don't even know how it was arranged, but I'm sure there were some good engineers there, because they had a lot of land to work with. But I think they made it army-style, they had a block, they called it a block, and in the block was barracks all around the block, and in the center was your mess hall, laundry room, shower room, stuff like that. But I think it was, copied that from an army barrack. I'm assuming that's the way it would have it, would have the, mess hall would be right in the center, and all around it would be these barracks, and the barracks there was so many homes. I think there was about six homes per barrack, I think. But anyway, I do know that they housed roughly two hundred to two hundred fifty people per block. And this, I'm sure, set up, an engineer must have set that up the best possible. It's like one great big street, like a great big town itself, just the one main street through there, just kept going up, kept going and going. I think there was about... I'm not sure how many blocks there was, but it seemed like, I've heard there were like sixty blocks, maybe it was in the fifties, but something like sixty blocks, and they get bigger. Two hundred or two hundred fifty people per block, that's a lot of Japanese in there. Somebody made the statement that Minidoka overnight became the second largest city in Idaho, so that makes... the second largest city would be around twelve thousand to fifteen thousand people. Must be just second to Boise then. But it just grew up overnight, that's how big the palace was.

So our block was Block 30. I guess we were practically right in the middle of all these barracks or all these blocks. And right across the street was 32, seemed like all of us, the even numbers were on one side and the uneven were on the other side, because I do know there was Block 31, Block 29, and we were Block 30. Each block was like a little town itself, they had a manager, we called him the mayor or the manager. They wanted everybody to have a job when you got there. They didn't care what you did, you could be a cook, a laundry, janitor, anything, but they just wanted you to be, do something to keep occupied. But they paid you for it, I think it something like, started at eight dollars a month, way up to like twelve dollars a month, depending on your position. So my job was... or not, we just formed our own, the four of us friends that we took out a jeep every morning and we went to all these mess halls, picked up the cans that were emptied out with food, and it could be any kind of food. And one side would be open where they took the food out, but these had a bottom, too, that was our job, was to cut the bottom out and step on 'em or smash 'em so they'd become flat. Then they were recycled again, and that's the way they did it, was the canned stuff. And our job was to go out and pick up these cans from all these mess halls and take 'em way out there to the edge of nowhere and we'd put up our little work area, and there was four of us, all good friends. And they weren't that strict because they knew what we were kind of doing, but we had four of us, three in the tent itself playing pinochle, and the other one on the watch for trucks coming by to see what we're doing. And this one guy would be out there busy cutting the bottoms out, and the other three in the tent playing pinochle. That's where I learned to play pinochle. [Laughs] So we had a pretty good time. And we were never reprimanded for that. I'm sure the guards knew what we were doing, but they never said anything. So in the evening, we'd put all the cans together that we four should have done, put 'em in the jeep, cans, then drop them off at some central location and they smash it. No, maybe we'd smash it. Yeah, once you take the bottom out, there's nothing to smashing those cans. And then they recycled them again. So I guess what I'm saying, just showed how much they eased up on us because I know they knew what we were doing. But they never did come look around, they just drive around to see if you were working. I guess we did cut a few cans, but not as much as we should have cut the bottoms out. But anyway, it was for a good cause, and in the evening we'd pick up our stuff and drop them off and tell 'em how much we did and that was it. And give 'em back our jeep, and that was my job. I'm not sure what they paid us for that, maybe eight dollars a month, and that was it for us.

LT: How was life different at Minidoka from the Portland Assembly Center?

GT: Okay. Well, Minidoka, it was more organized. It had more, better living quarters. As bad as it was, it was still better than anything we had in the assembly center, because it was set up a little better. They had... it was a coal stove, burnt coal in there. Used a lot of coal, I don't ever see any wood being burned, but we had these potbelly stoves, and there was bunk beds, so one stacked on another, but it was much more livable than the assembly center. It had to be, because this was kind of a permanent thing. It was set up better, mess hall, shower room, and laundry room, shower room, so it was set up more like army style. It was a much better combination, even though it really wasn't much, but it was much better than what we, our assembly center.

LT: What do you remember about eating at the mess hall?

GT: Oh, I would say that the food improved. I'm not sure just what they did to improve, but it improved a little better. But we still got our rice. I think that was the main thing at every meal. But it was better.

LT: Can you identify a typical meal?

GT: Gee, I wish I could. All I can remember is rice and something, maybe soy sauce or shoyu on it, but I do know they made some okazu, but I can't even remember what it was. A lot of it was Japanese food or the Japanese-style food that we got to eat. But it was much better than what we got in the assembly center. But I'm not sure just how, what they did with, what they served, but it was a little better food.

LT: And your barracks, the living quarters for your family, you were still in one room?

GT: Yes, still one room, not two rooms, but one, but it was a bigger room with a stove in it, your own heating system. Yeah, it was much better put together.

LT: What did you do with your family to make it more livable?

GT: What we did?

LT: At Portland Assembly Center, you were for several months. You knew it was temporary. When you moved to Minidoka, although you didn't know how long you would be there, you did know you would be living there for some time. I'm wondering if there were changes that you made to make your life there a little bit more pleasant?

GT: Gosh, I'm not sure. I do know one thing they did, especially for the young guys, but every night there was a dance someplace. One of the blocks had a dance and put up posters here, they'll say, "Dance Block 39," or Block 31. They'd always advertise that. But that's where all the studs would gather, women on one side, men on the other side, looking each other over. [Laughs] I think that's one thing the younger kids looked forward to, meeting with the other sex and other friends. Mothers and stuff, I'm not sure what they did, if they had their own club or what, but I don't know what they did to make it any different. But it was not that restriction there, it was more open, especially when you have dances and stuff like that. Had other things going. So it gave a little more freedom.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2013 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.