| OCR Text |
Show JUN KURUMADA 1 2 01 Francisco area, was at Topaz, but there were several in the an Di go in th uth ·n California area and some of them even included the San Francisco ar a who w r interned at Poston, Arizona, and Manzanar, Arizona. And some of the older p opl wh were accustomed to the weather, like in San Francisco, all of a sudden they re down in Manzanar, which is 120 degrees, dry and they were dying off ... BEC: Burning up. JUN: Yeah. They were dying off like flies. But then there was quite a bit of dissension there, but they had to endure it for the length of time they were there until they were released to go back. I think most of them went back. There were many of them who relocated here and several of them stayed here. In fact, one of my classmates, he was in Chicago and he stayed in Chicago. He didn't go back. He was originally from Sacramento. So he stayed. And there was one from Seattle that went back to Omaha, Nebraska, and was employed by Boys Town and he became one of the directors of Boys Town and he stayed there. But such as it was, why, some of them, or I'd say, most of them went back home, went back to their original homes. BEC: I'm curious to know if you were able to talk to, or keep in contact with your friends who where at Topaz, during the time they were in Topaz? JUN: Well, I was the president of the Japanese-American Citizen's League, the local chapter, the Salt Lake Chapter, at the time. And so what I was doing for them, as much as I could, was to find employment and housing for those who were able to get out, those who bypassed the camps and came out on their own to Salt Lake. And in fact, there were several incidents where I had to find housing for them. And in some cases, find 14 |
