Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Shig Miyaki Interview
Narrator: Shig Miyaki
Interviewers: Tom Ikeda (primary); Barbara Takei (secondary)
Location: Torrance, California
Date: September 22, 2009
Densho ID: denshovh-mshig_2-01-0012

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TI: And what were your first impressions when you got to Manzanar, when you saw Manzanar?

SM: It was a desert. [Laughs] And, you know, they had a few of the barracks built, and they had all the foundation poured, and the next one, and so forth. But...

TI: Now, as a group, were you one of the earlier groups at Manzanar, or were there very many people there already?

SM: Well, we were the second family group. The first group was the bachelors, and the second group was the people from Bainbridge, Washington.

TI: Yeah, Bainbridge Island.

SM: Yeah, Bainbridge Island. See, when they had to evacuate there, and they had nowhere to go. But they had this first couple of blocks built in Manzanar, and that's where they came.

TI: I'm curious, because Bainbridge Island -- I'm from Seattle -- is right across the Puget Sound. What were your, what were your thoughts about the Bainbridge Island people when you came across them? Did they seem different than the Terminal Island people?

SM: Well, yeah. It was... I would say different. Terminal Island people were a little bit on the rougher side, you know. [Laughs] They were all fishermen and, you know, I don't know what the people in Bainbridge did, but I think... and our group was a much larger group.

TI: Yeah, so I have to tell you, from their perspective, they were mostly strawberry farmers, and the stories they have was I think they were a little intimidated by the Terminal Island people. [Laughs]

SM: Yeah, could have been. [Laughs]

TI: They said they were a little...

SM: Yeah, I could say that was about right.

TI: Okay. So there's something, in terms of going to school, you were at this point a senior in high school.

SM: Yeah, when the war broke out, we were in San Pedro. I was a senior. Then when we went to Buena Park, I went to Fullerton High School for about a, almost a month, I think. And then we went to Manzanar, and I think we were the first class to graduate or pushed out from Manzanar High School. [Laughs]

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.