<Begin Segment 8>

[Ed. note: This transcript has been edited by the narrator]

TI: You know, there's a couple other stories I wanted to ask you about. One was the Salvation Army camp.

FT: Yeah.

TI: Why don't you tell me about that?

FT: Well, I went (...) during the summer -- it was two weeks, I think, summer camps. And the camp leaders were the older Niseis, like I remember Victor Nakashima and Togo Fujihara and (...) we lived in tents. And it was on a (...) board platform, the tents. I think there (were) six or seven cots in (...) one tent. (...) We had our own utensils, plates, and bowls. One of those, what do you call that? It wasn't... well anyway, so we'd like at breakfast, we'd take our own plates and then we'd throw 'em in the river. And then during swimming time, we'd recover 'em.

TI: And so you'd throw 'em in the river, that's how you'd wash your plate?

FT: Yeah, instead of washing them. [Laughs] And then in the evenings, we used to have campfires. And (the camp had) a hot tub, Japanese style. After campfire, we'd get in the hot tub and wash ourselves and then we'd run down to the river to cool off. It was right on the Green River in Auburn. And later on, I guess about the time the Depression was on, and they'd send us to work in the morning, pickin' raspberry to pay for our (...) camp life.

TI: So the kids would pick berries and then in the afternoon, you would then play.

FT: That would pay for our (stay).

TI: Okay, so you wouldn't get paid per se, that would be how you would earn your...

FT: Camp fee, yeah. That was, in the morning, (...) they'd send us out to the berry fields.

TI: So besides the older Niseis who kind of were the camp counselors, were there other adults there that kind of watched over the camp?

FT: Not that I can think of. I think there must have been a cook or somebody, I don't remember. Because they would organize all the things for us, so you know what, "You guys do this and that." Or take us on hikes and teach us how to build a campfire and all that kind of stuff. And they'd watch us swim. They were lifeguards while we swam and so on. But I don't remember any Isseis, but there must have been (a) cook, 'cause we ate in a mess hall, or in a mess tent.

TI: And when I read about this, you described it as a Salvation Army camp. Where did the Salvation Army come it? Why was it called Salvation Army?

FT: (Captain) Hirahara (...) (was an officer) in the Salvation Army. And (he sponsored the camp) called the Salvation Army Fresh Air Camp, SAFACs.

TI: So when they sponsored it, was the area owned by the Salvation Army?

FT: I don't think so. I think they just leased the area. It was in the same place every summer.

TI: And who were the other sort of campmates? Were they all kind of like neighborhood kids, or who else was there?

FT: (They were) about my age, (...) came from all over Seattle, I guess.

TI: And so did you, when you first met them at the camp, did you know most of them, or were they kind of like new people that you had to get to know?

FT: There (were), usually (...) friends of course, (kids) from other areas. We'd meet 'em for the first time and got to know (them), and then we'd see 'em the next year. (I remember one Nisei came several years from Portland).

TI: It sounds like a wonderful time.

FT: Yeah, it was.

TI: So there's another story I read about, and that's the escalator story. Can you talk about that?

FT: Yeah. Well, we were sitting around and we heard that they had an escalator. We didn't know what it was. It was a moving stairway or something like that. So we decided to go (downtown) and take a look at it. And so there was a bunch of us, maybe five, six of us. And we went down to, it was at Bon Marche, and it was a wooden risers and it was a clickety-clacking. And there was other people, other kids from other neighborhoods, were all there. All riding that thing up and then we'd go down the stairs and do it over again. [Laughs] And then much later, we learned it was called an escalator.

TI: So was this the first escalator in Seattle?

FT: Yeah, I think so.

TI: And how did you guys hear about it? Who heard about it?

FT: Oh, we'd go downtown quite often, just to windowshop and stuff like that. "Hey, let's go downtown, walk down there." And somebody spotted it and said, "Hey, there's this thing, (a) moving stairway. So let's go down and take a look at it." So we went (to see it).

TI: And so when you say you and other kids were riding up and then walking down the stairwell and then doing it again, at some point, did the store people just shoo you guys away?

FT: No, not that I know of. We'd get on maybe ten, twenty times. [Laughs]

TI: And so when you talk about all these rich moments, who were some of your good friends from that time?

FT: The names? I can't really (recall), but I remember there was a Seigo Kataoka, Shiro Yamaguchi, and there was a guy named Wakayama. And then there was a Shiz Hasegawa, Amy Ono, and Shiro's sister. And there was the Sugimoto family (...). They had several (...) brothers and sisters. And then there was people on Spruce Street, the Watanabes and the Shinbos, Omotos, (Inoues and Okadas). There was a lot of them in that area. And they, we did a lot of activities at that Baptist Church, which is on Broadway and Spruce. It was just two blocks from Tenth and Fir. And we used the gym at night to play basketball and (...) that. And they had a scout troop. Reverend Okazaki had several sons, one of them was (...) Bob Okazaki, (who) was much older (and) moved to L.A. and (...) was in several movies. He had the Oriental part in the movies. I remember when I was (at) the university, (...) a couple of friends said, "Hey, let's go down to L.A." So we went (and met him). And he (told us to) get right back home (and) don't stick around here. He said, "Los Angeles is not the place for you guys."

TI: Oh, really? So he grew up in Seattle, was working down there, but didn't think L.A., did you get a sense of why it wasn't a good place?

FT: No. He was established there then, he was an actor and everything. But...

TI: He thought you guys might get in trouble or something in Los Angeles?

FT: Yeah, in fact, the first day we were in L.A., we went down to Little Tokyo and we found a gang fight right on the street. And that really surprised us. A couple of Nisei gangs, they were fighting each other. And I remember one of them was called the Yogores. [Laughs]

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.