Densho Digital Archive
Oregon Nikkei Endowment Collection
Title: Dan Hinatsu Interview
Narrator: Dan Hinatsu
Interviewer: Betty Jean Harry
Location: Portland, Oregon
Date: March 7, 2014
Densho ID: denshovh-hdan-01-0010

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BH: So when you were working on the harvest, was that outside of camp?

DH: We signed up and got outside of camp. First camp, first winter, first harvesting time we went to Pocatello with nine other guys with us, bunch of young guys. The farmer gave us a truck, and Mino, he was driving, and he didn't even know how to drive and he stuck the truck in the, almost in the... and I was riding on the front fender, and I almost fell in the ditch. [Laughs] It's amazing how we survived that.

BH: I think we have a picture in the legacy center of you and Umeno in the truck, yes. So who else in that group of nine...

DH: It was Masami Takanaga, two Yamaguchi brothers, John Nozaki, Bobby the cleaner.

BH: Nishino.

DH: Nishino. Who else was there? Tanbara.

BH: So you were out there working on a farm. Did the others have farm experience like you?

DH: Most of them were city kids except the Yamaguchi boys. But I finally drove the truck after that, 'cause they wouldn't let Mino drive. I did other things for the farmer. I could harness the horses and saddle the horses. Other guys didn't know how to do that, but I could do that because we had horses. So I'd get to ride on the range, rounding up cattle and so on for the winter. Finally got it in before the snowstorm, and that's when we left back to camp.

BH: So you lived on the farm that you were working on with these nine guys.

DH: Yeah, nine guys. Somebody had to cook, I had to milk the cow because nobody knew how to milk the cow. [Laughs] The farmer gave us the cow and the truck and what to live on, where to go to the store to buy. So every time I had to drive him to the store, to Blackfoot to get food for ourselves.

BH: Now were you paid wages working on this farm?

DH: I think we worked on... yeah.

BH: Then winter set in and you went back to Minidoka. What were the winters like out there?

DH: Cold and windy and muddy.

BH: And you had those potbelly stoves to keep warm?

DH: Potbelly stove, with the coal, we had to go out and they'd dump the, bunch of coal in the corner of our block, and we had to go get our coal and sort of scramble to get the best coal we could get. Otherwise we had to clean out the potbelly stove, because if it's not very good coal, it just leaves all that stuff.

BH: So did you have... I know you had those friends on the farm. What'd you do for fun at camp? How did you pass the time?

DH: Oh, we had our things. We weren't a gang or anything, we were just a group of guys. We did some terrible things, and we stole some chicken, watermelons, for pastime.

BH: Where did you get the watermelons?

DH: Well, they had farms, after irrigation, they had farms. Chicken farm, pig farm, and so on.

BH: Within the camp?

DH: In Minidoka.

BH: Okay, okay. So did you ever get caught stealing chickens or watermelons?

DH: No, we knew how to get there, because there was a different canal, not too deep a canal, but we could cross. They can't see us until we get there. Only thing is those people trying to steal the chicken, they missed picking them, and they're making all that noise. [Laughs] And those guards come out there with a shotgun and they're blasting over our heads just to scare us away.

BH: Were they successful? Did you get scared?

DH: Yeah, we got scared. But we cleaned 'em and made our own chicken. [Laughs] In our rec. room, we had rec. room, we had a potbelly stove there, and somebody went to get a pan. We had our own chicken, fried chicken.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.