Ray H. Church, Ogden, Utah: an interview by Winston P. Erickson, June 12, 2000: Saving the legacy tape no. 39

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who was very fastidious about keeping track on the all. kn J u ru March, April, May and so forth. I don't think he could tell you actly th d t r second day of January, but it was close. I don't know how but it was pr tty cl th . h Japanese would say it was the Japanese New Year, so we knew it was pretty close. It wa hard to tell exactly, but it was close enough. We could tell the summers and September and October. But wonderful men, I mean, the cream of the crop, and they were the ones that didn't make it. They were the heroes. WIN: Did you establish a good rapport with the prisoners? Did you always try to help each other? RAY: You bet. Let me give you an example. When a guy died, and we had people die, and he'd have a good pair of shoes like this, you would have ten or fifteen guys claim them: "He gave them to me and he told me I could have them if he died." You know, it was kind of a bad thing in a way because it was hard to come by shoes and things like that and shirts and things like that. If a guy had anything decent on him, it would be a problem. So I devised a plan. I said, "We are going to have everyone make a will out to your buddies. You better write it right and give it to me. Write it with this little sharp pencil and write this little note and say, 'In case I die the shoes go to Joe Blow and pants go to someone else."' Anyway, that kind of helped a little bit. We had some arguments, but generally that helped because before that every time, they had a whole list of guys. But those guys-! would give anything to see those people again. They were so, just the 28