Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Tsuguo "Ike" Ikeda Interview II
Narrator: Tsuguo "Ike" Ikeda
Interviewer: Alice Ito
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: October 6, 2000
Densho ID: denshovh-itsuguo-02-0004

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AI: Well, now moving ahead in time, going to skip back ahead to your years at Lewis & Clark College. This is after the war now. And in 1948, you were again a very, continuing to be a very active person, and you tried out for the yell squad.

TI: Yes.

AI: Tell me, what did you have to do for that and what happened?

TI: Well, actually I really didn't have the skills doing that, yelling. I used to observe Bobby Imai, a fellow from Seattle, who had done yell leading. So I copied his style. And by chance, our team was approved by the school to represent them as a yell leader (team).

AI: And so as the yell leader then, what was your responsibility?

TI: Well, to select my team. So that's what I did.

AI: Now, you selected a team that was rather unusual for the time. The names of the people that you selected were Leslie Clerin, Bob Tabor, and Ruby Brock. And I wanted to ask you to read this item that appeared in the newspaper about your team.

TI: Yeah. "Lewis & Clark College ignores race prejudice. Portland's Lewis & Clark College proudly points to its cheering squad as example of the school's attitude toward race relations. Elected yell leader by the student body last year was Tsuguo 'Ike' Ikeda, who in turn appointed to his squad Ruby Brock, a Negro student, and Leslie Clerin, who was white, and Robert Tabor, who was white too."

AI: And here is a photo.

TI: Yes. This is Ruby and Tabor and Leslie and myself. We had a good time. I remember one time we were playing the football team in Vancouver, British Columbia, this big stadium. (We had a) leader's cone. One student from Canada grabbed that megaphone and started running around the stadium. And I had to try to run and retrieve it. I was really embarrassed. [Laughs] I still remember that. It was a good, school was comfortable with the minorities that were there, and so I felt a part of it.

AI: Now, Lewis & Clark College in Portland was not a very big college?

TI: No.

AI: Approximately what size was it?

TI: Something like 1,200 at the time.

AI: And I think I read that there was maybe about a dozen Japanese American students...

TI: Yeah.

AI: ...at the time you were there?

TI: Yeah.

AI: And a handful of other racial minorities?

TI: Yeah. Very few African Americans.

AI: And tell me a little bit about the feeling or the atmosphere for you and the other students who were racial minorities.

TI: Well, I never talked about that with, like with Ruby, who was a Negro. But I felt, based on my prior experience of deploring way America treated us as Japanese Americans, that I wanted to fight that kind of thing. And I felt having a yell team, mixed yell team, would be a way to communicate certain values. And it was a lot of fun. We had a good time together.

AI: So while you were having a good time, you were communicating something?

TI: Yes. Yes. It's goodwill toward each other, and toward the student body, and toward other opposition schools that we're fighting for.

AI: Now, it sounds very positive. I'm wondering, did you ever face anything negative as a mixed team like that?

TI: I don't recall. I believe I would have recalled if it was really bad. I was fortunate that the school was small. They were accepting what we were trying to do, and felt proud about what we did, too, based on the article.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.