During my interview with Guy L. Mori he began to talk about where his camp was in South Korea and what he had seen. He went into great detail about the Korean houses and how they were nothing more than small shacks with one light bulb giving light to two or three rooms. He described the children that passed on their way to school, explained about the Koreans that came to pick up their laundry and wash it for them. This part of the interview came near the end, when both Guy and I felt a little bit more comfortable.

G: I was there after the war and… uh… the people were friendly and the territory was just...uh… there were no trees left because they had to use it to burn for heat in the winter time. They go out and go get all the little pieces of wood and any little trees they could find and bring them home and burn them. There was actually no trees at all… it was just bare.

J: Like, totally bare?

G: Gone, it was just bare… no trees at all.

J: Like, no grass but like… hay?

G: Well, you know there would be some stuff, but it would be similar. They had uh… they didn’t have heat in their houses like we do over there. And they didn’t have electricity like we have. They have like one light bulb in uh… two or three rooms with like extension cords coming over and there were uh… they were very, very dim lights because they didn’t have much power. And to heat up the house it would be raise off the ground a little bit and there… sorry… they would put down charcoals underneath the floor and the heat would come up and heat the floor. The kids would sleep on the floor. They had no beds. They were, ahh… very poor people. But the children going to school they were all dressed the same, they all had the same uniforms on. Skirt and a white blouse, for the girls. And uhh… the boys wore almost similar but with the pants and the white shirts. They all dressed the same.

J: Did you ever see them on their way to school?

G: Oh yeah. They would go right by our place. It was like… we were on a road but we had…uhh… double fence. Double fenced in and they would walk on the outside. On the road to go to school. The school was very near to where we were. I think they were maybe sixth to seventh graders, some where around there. Maybe even a bit younger. I can’t remember their age…. We had our laundry done by the Koreans.

J: Really?!

G: Yeah. And they would…we would pay them once a month. They would take our clothes once a week and the guy that picked up our clothes we would give him one carton of Vice Roys. They would be pretty happy with that for pay.

J: What are Vice R-?

G: Cigarettes, Vice Roy cigarettes.

J: Oh. Okay.

G: That what they wanted, for a one month’s supply of clean clothes. So that was good for us. So it only cost us… oh I don’t know…back then, one to two dollars for a carton of cigarettes to give to them.

J: And you would give this to them per month?

G: A month. And then they would go and …uh…sell those cigarettes on the black market. And sell them to other people and make money off of it. That’s what happens.

J: Oh my!

G: Yeah, [laughs].

J: Did you ever try and stop to talk to the Koreans or communicate with them at all?

G: Well ah…you…they talk a different language, but ah…some of them do know a little bit of English…not many. It’s mostly hand…hand signs.