<Begin Segment 16>

MA: So let's talk a little bit about... so you're in Fort Lupton for several years. And you said you started high school in Fort Lupton. And the high school, what high school was that again?

NM: Fort Lupton High School.

MA: Fort Lupton High School. What were your experiences like in Fort Lupton High School? You know, your two years there.

NM: It was okay. And I got good grades because you have this competition among the Japanese, you have to do good. [Laughs] And, yeah, I had close friends, and we had a good time, except we didn't socialize after school.

MA: Were you still being bussed in?

NM: Uh-huh.

MA: At Fort Lupton High School, was it mostly white students and Nisei students? Or was there more, were there also Hispanic students that attended that high school?

NM: Uh, very few. There was. But mostly Caucasians. And then the Japanese well, at lunchtime, this family that moved into the town of Fort Lupton, we used to go there for lunch. And they were good friends, too, I mean, we made good friends. Yeah, I remember that. But they eventually moved back to the coast.

MA: So I imagine then, during that time, you saw a lot of people move in and then back. Do you remember that, like, the Japanese American community must have been kind of shifting a lot.

NM: In, yes, in Denver it was, the Japanese town was just booming. And then eventually, most of them went back. My uncle had a studio in, in the Japanese town called Yamakishi Studio. And he, before the war broke out, he was a photographer for MGM.

MA: In Los Angeles?

NM: Uh-huh. That's why, when he came out here he eventually opened a photo shop, and did very well.

MA: Who were his customers? Mostly Japanese American families?

NM: Yes, that I know, yes. And there was a lot of them at that time because they were all, a lot of them came from camp to Denver. And a lot of my friends were from Sacramento area. The ones I went to school in Denver, Manual High School. Yeah, and most of them are still here. But they, all of them were born in Sacramento.

MA: What about your family? So did your, it sounds like a bunch of your family came over to Colorado, did most people end up staying, or leaving after the war?

NM: My oldest uncle went back. His family, and when they went back, there was no place to stay, so they stayed in a tent city, they call it. I guess they pitched tents and lived there until they could find a place.

MA: Was that in California?

NM: Uh-huh. In the L.A. area.

MA: Was there ever any talk about like you shouldn't, that people shouldn't go back to the West Coast? Was there a fear of going back to the West Coast that you recall among your family at all?

NM: No, I don't know why they didn't go back. I know my aunt said they liked Colorado, so... but I think there was a fear, because there was still a lot of who knows, problems going on. And I think that was the reason why they stayed here, too, and they were afraid to move back.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.