<Begin Segment 12>

BH: Now, there's a replica of a Minidoka barracks at the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center that you built.

DH: Yes.

BH: Tell me about that process.

DH: Well, I can't remember who asked me, but they asked me. So the only thing I had is pictures, and I knew what the, how the house was built, because I had a little bit of knowledge from the school, from Benson. So I figured everything, scale-wise, I brought it down to the scale, size, I built on. I took all the different plywood, I mean, cardboard. It's one of those art board. And all the timbers in there were toothpicks and matches, balsa wood. I made all the rafters exactly the dimension, I mean, scaled down to that size. And I put 'em, then I, for tarpaper I used black paper, construction paper, and I pasted all the slats on it. Then they wanted to see how it looked inside so I had to cut out, made a cut out for 'em out of timber and joists all met together. So it was, took a little while, but I spent a few hours pasting many things together, putting glue on. I don't know, it's still sitting there.

BH: I bet it took more than a few hours. Visitors remark about, because it gives them a picture of what it's like.

DH: Trouble is, they didn't give me any plan or anything. I had to go, "Here's a bunch of pictures from the old album, you know, where the windows are, and I figured, door's a certain size, so I figured that, then how high the roof was pitched, and how wide everything was.

BH: What kind of memories did that bring back working on those barracks?

DH: Well, I knew a lot of 'em because I did crawl under when we're doing things. Our rec hall was the same way except it's open. Most of it, the dining hall, they were all built the same type of way.

BH: Did working on the barracks remind you of being in Minidoka?

DH: No, I tried to remember what it was like, because I wasn't there that often. Most of the time it was just during the winter, and everything was all locked up and so on and so forth.

BH: What was the general mood in camp when people learned that the war was over?

DH: I'm not sure. I was out and already working out in the railroads. But I knew Dad called me and says they're ready to get relocated, so I quit the railroad and went back to camp. And had this car, which my brother left when he left for Detroit. I took that car, filled up what we can load up, and had one of the trucks, shipping trucks, took all the big things, and I drove from camp to Fruitland, Idaho, and that's where we relocated because he had a job at nursery. Since he was a farmer, they figured that's the only way they can find a place for them to stay, so we went to Fruitland where he got a job, had a house, stayed in a house, paid the rent.

[Interruption]

BH: Dan, let's go back and talk about this famous furniture maker that your family knew, George Nakashima, is that right? Okay. So tell me how you were acquainted with him and the work that he did.

DH: Well, in the Portland Assembly Center, he was in the assembly center and he was teaching people in the cabinet making area. And my dad was there and knew him, so he was working with him, and my dad said, "Come and learn something from him," so I went over and, like a class, I guess, I was told to take this board and clamp it on this wood clamp and plane it smooth. And that's what I did all day, plane that board 'til it was... [laughs] he looks at it and says, "Go ahead, more," he says.

BH: What kinds of things did he build besides cabinets?

DH: He designed things, too, like Epworth pews, that's his design. He was well-known before he went in camp, because he went to architect school in India and so on. And he loved to build furniture. It's all handmade, and he used nothing but Japanese tools, old fashioned tools, and all those kind that you scrape and the kind you planed and the kind you drilled, all Japanese type of things, all hand, everything is hand done.

BH: And no nails?

DH: No nails, it's all wood. I don't know how he figures it out, but it's well-known. There's museum pieces.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.