Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Victor Ikeda Interview
Narrator: Victor Ikeda
Interviewer: Richard Potashin
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Date: November 6, 2007
Densho ID: denshovh-ivictor-01-0040

VI: I remember the first year that we got there, I think it was 1942, in the fall, they were looking for people to pick the potatoes. So some friends, they were older, of course, and there were eight of us. We paired up in pairs, and we went out to pick potatoes. Where we went was a farmer had a whole pickup truck, so instead of having to come and pick us up in the relocation camp, he gave us the use of the pickup truck, so that the people can drive back and forth. Now, we had, I was with a group that had a couple of people that were through college, so they were older, so they drove the trucks and all that. We'd go out there and we'd pick the potatoes, and he had a good deal 'cause after he got through picking the potatoes he sent us back, so the camp will feed us. So only thing he gave us was, I think, sandwiches for lunch or something. Well, we were doing this for a while, and one day we came back, and as we got to the gate, all of a sudden here were all these soldiers with guns, machine guns, aimed at us. We came and they stopped us, they told us to get out with the guns pointed, lined us up, and they started searching us and the pickup truck. What had happened, we had no idea what was happening, except it sure didn't feel good when they lined you up and they're pointing guns at you. What we found out was the farmer's son had come home and decided that he wanted to, while we were picking potatoes, decided he wanted to go hunting or something, and he took the shotgun and he left the house. And so when the farmer came back and saw the shotgun missing, he thought that we had taken it and he had called the, the military police at Minidoka. [Laughs] So as we drove up, they not knowing whether we had the shotgun or not, they just lined us up. We missed our dinner, and after the farmer found out that his son came home with his shotgun, he apologized and the next time we went in, he bought us dinner. So that was quite an experience.

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