<Begin Segment 10>

TI: In terms of, during this time period, music, how did music sort of stay alive with the family? Were there certain things that you or your sisters did to continue with music?

MN: Well, we had an old victrola, we used to play all our classical music on big old giant disks and play music. And, of course, we had a radio, we'd sing with the songs and learn songs with the Hit Parade. And we always were a bunch of hams, we always entertained each other. We would have little talent shows and call the neighborhood kids, hakujin kids, we would all take turns having little programs and that's how we made our own jollies. [Laughs] And eventually, when I was able to go to singing school and dancing school, I was asked by a group to entertain for get-togethers.

TI: So singing and dancing school, when did that happen?

MN: I was twelve, I guess I was about twelve when I used to go. No, maybe before that. It had to be before that because my promised that he would send me to singing and dancing school if I didn't go to Japan. It would be around twelve or so.

TI: Yeah, you were about twelve or thirteen when that happened.

MN: Uh-huh, and I used to take a bus and go to Santa Monica and take my singing and dancing, tap dancing, and I was worthless, tap dancing, I was like a stick. And my sister would take ballet, and I think she was taking some kind of dance with my older sister. But we all enjoyed dancing and singing. But the singing is what kept me going. And eventually the teacher in Santa Monica would come to the house and teach me singing, and he was teaching me piano. And I would not practice piano, so he says, "I'm not going to teach you anymore, 'cause you don't practice." So he washed his hands of me. But singing he kept up with me. So 'til 1941, '42, I took singing lessons.

TI: And while you were taking singing lessons, did you do very much in terms of performance?

MN: Yes, from about twelve years old I was performing with JACL groups and things.

TI: And so when you performed for JACL groups and things like that, what kind of events would these things be?

MN: It would be their installation, or they would put on a talent show, and some of their members would dance and sing, and they were all adults, of course, I was the only child. And so we put on very good shows. We were even, we even went to army camps to entertain the soldiers, and that was unheard of, for a Nisei group to go over there and sing and dance and put on a show for them. I remember that.

TI: So when you say "we," this sounds like a group.

MN: The (West Los Angeles) JACL group.

TI: The JACL group.

MN: Uh-huh, and I was the only kid.

TI: And when you sang, was it as a soloist?

MN: Uh-huh, yes.

TI: And what were some of the songs you would sing back then?

MN: Oh, like things that were popular in those days like Pennies from Heaven and, gosh, I didn't remember those songs way back then. But it's the popular songs of the Hit Parade era. I would learn it by (...) listening to the radio, writing the words down, and then singing it, 'cause I couldn't afford the sheet music.

TI: So I guess I'm imagining that here you're with a group, they're adults, and you're the only kid with them, that you were already viewed as being a really good singer, that you stood out in many ways as a singer, even way back then. Would that be a fair thing to say?

MN: I guess. I was a ham, and I was never afraid. I would be nervous, but never afraid. Once I started singing, my lips stopped trembling, and then I would just sing and wouldn't be afraid after that. But before I sang, I was actually shaking, 'cause I was afraid to, because it was all a bunch of adults. But even through when I was in Manzanar, I would be nervous, but I was never afraid.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.