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Play MovieTranscription below by: Jimmy S (2010)
Edited transcription by: Joseph Werhan (intern)
Please report errors to: info@tellingstories.org
Tensions in Manzanar
So from Manzanar you went to Montana and then to Chicago?
And then I came back to camp.
Oh, you came back to camp?
Yes. And then the Bainbridge group moved on to Minidoka. The reason for that is there was a riot in Manzanar. It wasn't what people thought was subversive but the press made it as if it was subversive—elements that were creating it. It was about this one fellow that discovered some of the rations that were supposed to be delivered to Manzanar, were being outed somewhere else and they were selling it.
And so that's when the riots came about?
This guy that discovered that, they picked him up and took him to the jail.
The man that started the riot?
No, the guy that knew. And then the other people. There were other people that decided they were going to side with the guy and they went to the administration and wanted him released. (This impertradors or whatever) Corrected but...
When was this? Do you know?
This was probably back about a year after we were there and not even a year, maybe about eight months. Let's see, we got there in April so I'd say about April, maybe somewhere around January.
December 5th and 6th of 1942? I looked it up.
That be a day after Pearl Harbor. A year, day after would be Pearl Harbor. A year after Pearl Harbor.
And were you there during this riot or were you in Montana?
No, we were, no, I was there. I'm a "scaredy-cat." These guys are up there and they were prompting.They had the soldiers on the other side and the commander or the sergeant in charge had them all ready, just in case. It wasn't that much of a riot, but it made it sound. Some of these guys, one of the kids that went down, was only a ten year-old kid, that got shot. Because some of these guys, they want to go up on the front line. I wasn't one of those. I was probably in the back. Actually, I can remember going back and going into my living quarters and locking the doors, because we didn't know what would happen then. And then that's when...
So did you know anyone personally? So there were two people who were killed and a bunch of others that were wounded, did you know any of them personally?
No I didn't.
No?
The publisher on Bainbridge Island—you know I used to send articles over there—and I didn't, it was just at the time I just came back from a beetfield. I wasn't communicating with them. He wanted to know if any Bainbridge people were involved and all that. When he found they weren't, then he decided Manzanar was a dangerous place to have its citizens. He instigated a move to have the Bainbridge people moved to Minidoka. About half of the people from Bainbridge moved up there. Some of them had relatives down there, and they liked the weather. It was warm as compared to Idaho.
Who is this man? Could you tell us the name of the publisher you're talking about?
Oh yes. Walter and Mildred Woodward. They were the publishers of the Bainbridge Review. He was going to go—actually he went—to University of Washington. He was going to be a doctor. In fact his dad was a doctor. In the process he had some buddies that were working for the Seattle times. He used to go to the Seattle Times—that's a Seattle paper. And then—he got kind of interested—and one summer he went up to Alaska. And when he went to Juneau, Alaska he met Mildred Log—his wife. She was a school teacher there from Bainbridge island. Her parents and all of them lived on Bainbridge Island. But she took a job up—and they hit it off and as he tells it. He said all the whistles and bells went off when he saw her. They got married and came back and that's the story of Walt Woodward..
How did you find out about the possibility of there being unfair distribution of resources?
You know how people—well especially when they're at camp—they'd just tell each other. That group was trying to get people on their side. And then they went down to the administration department, and they wanted this fellow released.
Was your involvement with the riot how you became involved in the JACL?
With the JACL?
Yes because wasn't the man who they captured...?
Yes that same group started picking on JACL group—the one that said to go into camp willingly—without resistance and cooperate with the government. There was some people that suddenly, outwardly showed their resentment for the JACL leaders. In fact there still is today.
How did the deaths and injuries as a result of the riot affect the way the camp was run or just the sentiments people had?
Actually, I think they got rid of the person some way, and then they start. I really don't know but I would say that the camp manager, it was Ralph Merit. I think he was a very slick or no, I shouldn't say, that's wrong. He was very good at making it so that they didn't continue this problem that they had. He made it sound as though that there were boy scouts that went out and raised the United States’ flag on the grounds and all that and made it sound as though the Japanese were all "anti" people I think. And then they must of worked it out some way. I think the person that was supposed to have been moving the food—salads—I don't know, they probably moved him out or transferred him somewhere else. The other fellow came back. The guy that made the accusation.
Then on the other hand there was that hatred for the JACL. In fact a group of people went after them. They hid the president of the JACL in the hospital underneath a gurney or something. When this group of maybe about four or five people—all of the sudden they're all uptight and they're going to go after him. They said, "Let's go after the JACL leaders." When you're in a camp with a little hatred they don't think. A lot of people don't think very sanely. So I think they went after the JACL. As it turned—the JACL people—after that they got them out some way—snuck them out. No, Okay I'm sorry. The camp people did.
What do you mean by "the camp people did?" Explain your clarification.
The authorities. You know, they're running the camp—and snuck out the JACL leaders—when they knew that this little segment was after them. At first when this group was after—looking for these JACL leaders—they hid the leaders in camp and some were at the hospital. I don't know when but they took them out later. But as I was told the went through—they didn't discover them—they hid them underneath the gurney or something. Right after that when they didn't find them they took them out of camp—took them somewhere else. There was a lot of that.
When did you camp experience end? Wait, let's stay within camp. Anymore descriptions that you want of his camp experience? Oh right, of course. How did you begin to correspond with the Woodwards?
I was instructed. When we got the orders to go, he says, "Now you've been our janitor for here, now you're a reporter, and I want you to write everything that happens every week." So that's what he did and that's why these articles say Paul Ohtaki, the review correspondent. And at the beginning he says, "You'll pay"—I think about—“five dollars per month” or something—and that's a lot of money in those days. But I was never a writer. I happened to get that job because I was taking journalism as an elective. When the Woodwards bought out the former owners in the paper, they put in a call to the high school saying that, "Maybe we can get some student to come out and clean up the shop after press night.” And in those days—when the paper gets caught in the ink—they had to pull it out. But they had a deadline so they just threw it all over the shop. I'd come in the next day and clean it up. Then it was so interesting that I worked a little faster and I started looking into how to set type and all that. And so as long as I showed an interest they would give me more work.
Transcription below by:Greg W (2010)
Edited transcription by: Joseph Werhan (intern)
Please report errors to: info@tellingstories.org
Mr. Woodward was pretty clever too. He said, "Now you're the reporter. I want you to write a 15 word telegram"—in those days you can write a night letter— “And then hand it to the sentry"—one of the soldiers that guarded us—"and he will take it to the Associated Press office and send it up." And he did. So we arrived in Manzanar on April Fool’s Day. The soldiers sent the article up so that they had the articles about the evacuees arriving safely in Manzanar on April Fool's Day, April two. Mr. Woodward was very methodical and figured out how to do that. Maybe I got about three or four weeks—I had things to write about—but after a while I felt I was not a journalist. I didn't have anything to write about so I sent the camp newspaper up instead. That's when I got a letter saying, "Dear lazy bones," and it says, "I find the Manzanar Free Press good reading, but where's my Manzanar correspondent gone?" Then he explained—he said, "When this is all over and you going to want to come back and the great majority will greet you and welcome you back but there will be some that won't and they might stir up trouble." He was right, and that's why he wanted to have the articles every week to let them know that there were the neighbors that were down in Manzanar.
So how soon after this riot took place were the Bainbridge folks taken to Minidoka?
I'd say maybe in a month.
Who's decision was that?
The Army here, that had the jurisdiction over moving the Japanese into camp.
How did you react to hearing you were going to be moved?
We just went along with it because the leaders of our group said, "Enough." I think if I had a choice I would have stayed in Manzanar with much more—it was warm and all that. When you got to Minidoka you got into snow and rain and it was really miserable as compared to living in Manzanar. About half the people went up to Minidoka, and so did I and our family.
How was Minidoka different from Manzanar aside from the weather?
All the people in Minidoka were people from the Northwest—from Bainbridge Island, Seattle, (Piala) and all that area. They all went to Minidoka. I think we'd say that the California people were probably a little more aggressive or more worldly than the Northwest. The Northwest people—they weren't as aggressive as the California people. But really—later on when you got to know them—we got along alright. The people that remained okay got along with them and we went up to Hunt and we got along with the people up there.
Was daily life pretty much the same?
Yes. I would say. I think the big thing was that the parents were getting worried that the young people were not having a family life. They would get up, they'd go to the mess hall, have breakfast and then go and join their little group and not come back. Then they'd have their lunch and dinner there. They hung around with their group and then they'd come back maybe about nine or ten o'clock, jump into bed and go through the same cycle. The parents were afraid that the kids no longer had the discipline and I think that was one of the things that worried the parents.
How did you relate to your parents? Did you spend a lot of time with them?
No. I got to Hunt, Idaho and my parents got settled there and my brother and I went to Chicago. We went on a Greyhound bus. We sat in the back. There was one guy—we didn't sit in the front. We tried not to be too noticeable. We arrived in Chicago and one of the guys that was with the American Friends Service Committee, (Medalsin, he put us in a hotel. Then we started looking in the paper and I got a job working for a printing company in Chicago.
[some discusion and re-direction, the interview continues]
What kind of tasks were you assigned to do beyond the gas distribution?
Okay. After I quit that—it got a little too heavy for me. I went to school—they had classes—I tried to take shorthand but I didn't do to well in that. But then they had camouflage nets and we'd make camouflage nets as a team. I joined some of the Bainbridge kids and maybe about five guys would work on making camouflage nets. I don't even know. See normally you would be paid eight, ten, and twelve or sixteen dollars for professional. That's for the doctors and twelve was for probably the people doing the distributing—maybe the kitchen help or something—and nine was just for doing menial work around the camp like cleaning up or cleaning the grounds or just picking up something.
These were dollars per what? Per hour? Per day?
Per month.
So did you get your diploma in Manzanar for high school?
That's another thing. We had about two months or about a month before graduation. So the Bainbridge High school sent us some of the books to finish our curriculum for that year. We had a graduation in Manzanar.
What was that like?
We had thirteen Nisei’s out of our graduating class and they went through the pomp and circumstance. We went through that and they got the camp manager to give us our diplomas and that was about it.
