In 1943, First Street was the nerve center of life at Manzanar, a busy thoroughfare where camp business brought internees and administrators together and where the boundaries between camp life and the outside world seemed to meet. On the south side, white buildings housed the War Relocation Authority offices, staff housing, and the Town Hall, where elected block leaders met weekly, while the main post office received 1,500 letters each day for delivery to barracks addresses. On the north side, black tar-papered barracks contained the police station, the Manzanar Free Press newspaper office, and other camp services, marked by wooden signs in the Owens Valley wind. A typical morning included secretary Mary Kageyama walking to the Public Works office, Jack Takayanagi signing up for a softball league at the Community Activities office, Marian Fujimoto checking the job board for employment outside the camp, and WRA staff children Art Williams and Fred Causey waiting near the sentry post for the school bus to Independence.