Densho Digital Archive - Shig Miyaki Interview (denshovh-mshig

<Begin Segment 15>

TI: I want to go back a little bit to school. You mentioned, I think the term you said was "pushed out," your graduating there. So tell me, the first year at Manzanar, what was school like? I mean, what was the classes like?

SM: I don't even remember. It used to be, they used to get one of those barrack quarters and used that as a classroom. And I don't know. I don't even know exactly what we learned over there. [Laughs]

TI: Well, earlier, you talked about enjoying sports. In Manzanar, did you do any sports like baseball?

SM: Oh, yeah, we used to play basketball and baseball and things like that. But, you know, it was quite a bit later that they had organized baseball and basketball.

TI: How about things like judo tournaments? So did they do judo at all?

SM: Yeah, we used to have judo, kendo tournaments there, you know.

TI: During the break we talked a little bit about your organized sports and you did track and field in high school, too, but probably not at Manzanar, but more when you were in Los Angeles. So track and... can you describe what kind of events you did in track and field?

SM: Well, pole vault was my specialty in track. And the shotput was just my extra, that thing that I did, but I wasn't too good at that.

TI: So now, when they do pole vault, they use these fiberglass poles. But in your day, what would they use to...

SM: It was all bamboo, mostly bamboo. Then every now and then they'll bring in an aluminum pole, but it was too stiff. So you had to have the spring, and it was hard to get a bamboo pole that was appropriate for pole vaulting.

TI: Wow. So the good, to really do well, a good bamboo pole would be better than an aluminum pole?

SM: Oh, yeah, much better.

TI: But then how long would a bamboo pole last? Because I imagine with the wear and tear, when you hit the box, it'd put a lot of stress on that.

SM: Yeah. It lasted pretty good, you know.

TI: And in those days, did you have your own personal pole or did everybody share?

SM: Oh, yeah, well, the... well, in any sport or whatever, the better athlete gets to get the first choice of all the equipment. [Laughs] And so everybody had their own pole, more or less, you come down the line to pick out, you get the choice of pole when they bring 'em in. [Laughs]

TI: And so in these days, so I'm thinking around 1940 or so, how high were you going with a bamboo pole?

SM: Well, I think I did 11'9", and that was pretty good for high school. That was good enough to go to the city, L.A. city finals. So, you know, I didn't place there, but I was good enough to compete there, let's put it that way. [Laughs]

TI: And the relative, so you're going close to twelve feet. What would be, kind of, at that point, with bamboo poles, like the elite athletes, what would they be doing?

SM: Yeah, in about, 13 foot would be about the limit for high school at that time.

TI: Uh-huh. And college, they would be a little higher?

SM: Yeah, in college, they probably did maybe 14 feet or better.

TI: Yeah, because I think a lot of the high school -- yeah, if you went 12 feet with a fiberglass pole, that was doing pretty well in high school, until you got to the elite level. Interesting.