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Play MovieTranscription below by: Jimmy S (2010)
Edited transcription by: Joseph Werhan (intern)
Please report errors to: info@tellingstories.org
Arrival in Manzanar
We're on a train going down railroad avenue. How long was the journey?
About two days, I think. We got our evacuation notice on March 25th. We boarded the train on March 29th. We had 6 days to clean up the mess. Then I think it was two days that we were on, and we arrived in Manzanar at a place called Independence, California. Then we got off and got on a bus and then we came North on 395 highway. On both sides, you saw, it was sand with sagebrush. We thought, “Oh, I wonder where they're gonna take us?” Then we saw this construction of some of the barracks. They weren't even ready when we got there. We said, "Boy, I hope we're not going there," and then sure enough, the bus turned and went off. The only buildings that were completed were the guys that volunteered. They were offered jobs to set the place up.
Did you help build at all?
No, not at all, but we helped. One of the jobs that was open was to deliver oil to each apartment. We—the Bainbridge group—had on this one truck about eight people. We took these five gallon cans and we'd get the big oil truck and we'd get the stove oil. Then we'd go on and go up to each apartment every morning. That’s another thing too. The guys up in Bainbridge—some used to go, I wouldn't go—would go deer hunting so they had red hats. When we were on the oil truck with red hats, some of the people down in LA—the gang—thought, “Oh, that’s a gang. Let's challenge them.” So they wanted to challenge us and of course we weren't used to fighting where the gangs were. As it turned out, we got help from the Terminal Island people that came in right after us. They were right next door. They were fishermen that got their ships grounded or all the things were taken from them. They couldn't go out fishing anymore. They were actually moved into Los Angeles and then they came in. They were pretty tough and they came and helped us so that saved us.
Back on the train, what did you do to occupy all that free time?
We played pinnacle, maybe we played rummy.
Same sort of things we'd do today, if we were on a ride like that.
I guess yes. But gee, to do that eight hours a day. And then you know somebody tried to lead in singing and all that. A few soldiers came out but they were instructed not to come in and mingle with us. But some of them came in. It was a group from New Jersey, the military group that took us down.
So after your first view from the bus when you realized you were going to be in that place with the unfinished barracks, what were you first impressions?
It was a little low, because here you are, they're building a bunch of barracks. And building about twenty feet wide by about a hundred feet. They had seven of them on each side. Then in between they had the latrines and all that. But, they were just putting the walls up. They were pre-fab. So, then we watched them put the wall up then all of a sudden by night time they had it. And the floors were, because it was green wood, after it dried out you had cracks in the floor and whenever you went to bed, that wind would churn the sand up and it would, when you got up in the morning you can see your image and where you slept the night before. That's how it was at first. But later on they got linoleum and they put. And then they divided these building up to five compartments. Twenty by twenty. And some people like us, we had only four people. My mother was the religious type, brought, a couple they were good friends with and the minister. So we had seven in ours. The minister was quite old, but he was very patient. But then in a week or two, they found places for them. But that was the first night. And the other thing is went went into a...and when we had food, I can still remember, we had canned spinach. If you've never seen canned spinach... It looked like one of those army trucks, that same color. The lavatories were not finished, they're just hooked up. No compartments. They had the the women's side. We got these mess kits that the United States used to use for the Civil Service. At one time when they were trying to, you know, they had the group of people that used to work it the, up in the mountains and all that. They furnished those.
CCC? The CCC? Is that the Civil Service? CCC.
Yes. We had those, and we'd be in line. That was okay. The cooks, they got new utensils and they had to cook all this. At first it was all stew any way. They didn't wash the kettles too clean. Tthey did, but they didn't wash the detergent off. So we had our first meal, we had a lot of people running to the bathroom. And of course the bathroom wasn't all set up. Oh man. Some people thought we were being poisoned, but as it turned out they got things worked out. They got compartments and later they got everything worked out. But the beginning, yes I could remember that.
What was the first thing you did when you got into Manzanar?
We were assigned these rooms. They'd give you a bag and you had to fill it with straw. That was your mattress. Then you'd take it back and if you had seven people you got seven of these canvas bags and you'd fill it with straw and that was your mattress.
Can you describe the room? What is was like with seven people in it.
At the beginning of course, they had the divide but they didn't have the top closed so you can hear the next person all the way down. They were all talking to each other, and you can hear the conversation. But fortunately I guess they used good plywood so you didn't see the other people.
Can you take us on a virtual tour of the camp?
I can. I'd take you to one block, that's all the have now. And then way on the end they have a grave yard with this one gravestone for all the people that died in Manzanar.
Try to talk like you're there right now. "So I'm walking through and I'm seeing..." But talk to them.
But you know it was all sand. Sand and no solid ground — it's all sand. So when the wind would come out at night it'd just blow that sand up. Even when you're walking down you can get caught in something. And actually, other than that, you didn't have anything between the barracks and then they had tar paper on the walls, outside. But after maybe a week or so they got these things like the floor — well the floor didn't come in for some time so we had to go through that a lot. We had to wash our utensils before. Then they got the wash rooms made up—that was the other thing—it was terrible.
Can you describe a typical day at Manzanar? What you would do during the first couple weeks?
We didn't do anything but then they had—already—programs set up. The older people wanted to keep the young people from getting together or just going out and hanging together. So actually young people after that did not go back to their barracks. They would go get up in the morning and they'd meet their friends and they'd loiter all over and they'd go to one block and so on. The parents became very concerned about that because first of all we didn't know anything about gangs and I guess L.A. had about three or four big gangs. The administration knew that so they were watching them too.
Was there any bodies of water or something like that there?
Yes, they had the water above the camp and that water was going to Los Angeles. And that's why that area was bare, it was all sand there. One time Manzanar used to be a real nice, green place with a lot of vegetables and everything. But Los Angeles got the water and they took the water away so that all the water to Manzanar camp is...they didn't have water. All of the sudden, now they set up a camp there so they got some people in Los Angeles a little bit up and concerned because here they were—there were supposed to be Japanese prisoners up there. They could poison the water—poison all the people in Los Angeles. But that's a way—when the war comes and people don't know—you can hear all the different things that will come up.
Was there an open aqueduct going through? Is that what you're saying? Like the Owen's river, wasn't it?
Yes I think it is kind of a river. It was way up because they had that plus—up higher up by Mt. McKinley—we never got that far. You could go—they were getting water from there too I think. That I don't know.
What was similar about being in camp and living on Bainbridge Island? Or was there anything similar?
No. No, actually we saw people that's all. But all of a sudden we didn't even go anyplace. We had a basketball—they built a basketball court there and then we had a baseball team that played in the other, that's about the only thing.
Did you play baseball?
No I didn't there. I couldn't make the team. They had plenty of other guys that were a little taller than I.
And what was different? What's a big contrast between living in Manzanar and living on Bainbridge Island?
For one thing, we couldn't get out. That's a big thing. You couldn't get out. And then there was a shortage of a man power on the farming and the sugar people, farmers, in Idaho and Montana. Didn't have any workers, so they were recruiting them from the camp. So when we heard that they were going to have a, well it was C&H Sugar that came, was going to come out and recruit some people. We, I remember getting up at five o'clock in the morning and waiting to make sure if we could get on. So about eight of us from Bainbridge Island signed up and got a farmer up in Conrad, Montana. And what a nice feeling just to get out of camp. So we went up there and taught beets. I think we made about seventy dollars and that was it. But for me it was my bus money to go to Chicago because we can go East. They set up these restrictive zones in Washington, Oregon, and California. Montana of course is on the other side.
