Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Fred Y. Hoshiyama Interview
Narrator: Fred Y. Hoshiyama
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Culver City, California
Date: February 25, 2010
Densho ID: denshovh-hfred_2-01-0024

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TI: And so how long were you at Tanforan?

FH: Not long. I volunteered, I was, get there April 28th, I left September 9th on a volunteer to help set up Topaz. And then there's a very interesting story about this. There's a guy, I went to Topaz September 9th, arrived there, I guess I left earlier, maybe three days or four days earlier, arrived there September 9th, who meets me but a guy named Lorne Bell. Lorne Bell is the administrator, associate head man for Topaz. He was Caucasian. He used to work for the YMCA, and he worked for the YMCA after camp. But he saw a lot of kids that he was working with in southwest Los Angeles, Long Beach. They were being pulled away and sent away to Manzanar. So he quit his Y job, he said, "I want to stay with my boys." He quit his job, resigned, and applied to go to Manzanar so he could keep working with his kids. Lo and behold, it's all bureaucracy. They sent him, not to Manzanar, but Topaz where he knew nobody. So he started looking at the roster of people coming in, eight thousand, nine thousand. "Fred Hoshiyama, YMCA." He waited for me to show up. And he says, "I'm Lorne Bell." I said, "I've heard of you." I never met the man before, "I heard of you." Lorne Bell was one of the leaders in the movement, and he told me his story. Well, long and short of it is, he introduced me to the director, his boss, Ernst, Charles Ernst, head of the Topaz, September 9th. Okay. Ernst says, "Fred, we want to be as helpful as we can for the inmates coming in. In a few days, they'll be coming in by carloads. You guys are here to help set up the camp." So we were there early, two or three weeks, try to get the thing going. And then, lo and behold, he says, "I want you to greet the people. Each trainload that come in, every night, I want you to introduce me to the group. That's all, yeah. Using me as the front man. They knew me from Hanamaki at camp, you know, I used to do the stand-up stuff. And others, of course, the Y people knew me. And that's my connection with Lorne Bell. I couldn't get a job on the mainland after the war, 1945, camp is over. Lorne Bell is in Honolulu now. He's back in the YMCA. And I get off the ship -- I couldn't get on the plane, I get knocked off, knocked off, knocked off, finally I got over there. I couldn't get a job on the mainland, I had twelve interviews, not one job in the YMCA. That's the kind of... you know, we're at war with Japan, and they looked like the enemy. If they hired me, the Y would lose money? Maybe. It's just a...

TI: And I'm sorry, what year is this?

FH: '45.

TI: '45, so right after the war.

FH: Yeah, just as the war is ending, '44, '45. I got my master's at Springfield College. That's the only way to get out of camp. I only stayed four months in Topaz. I got in January, I got there September, October, November, December. January 10th, I'm on the plane, no, train to go to Springfield. And then I got my Master's of Education there, 'cause the only way to get out of camp was to go to school at that time, Quakers.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.