<Begin Segment 23>

MN: Now, when was that other time you went to Griffith Park to sort of give a hint to the Gardena group? Was this earlier on?

JM: Oh, that's... it's kind of hard to tell the sequences of events that took place. Like I say, it just got out of hand. It just developed into an all-out war between the east side and the west side. And I believe at that time, I realized... well, I knew that... I figured out we did... there never was a situation where both parties are going to come together and go at each other. It was more like continuous skirmishes, and I'm thinking that our strengths were that we had a lot of alliances, though all of it was so fragmented now, 'cause everybody was gone here and there. So I was kind of concerned, I said, "Well, if Gardena joins the west side, we have no chance whatsoever because numerically, they're going to outnumber us three or four to one. So I understood that the, there was this dance in Pasadena, and I think... I don't know how I got the word, but some of the Gardena folks were going to be there. So we went over there with the express idea of shaking up the Gardena folks to just let 'em know they better not align with the west side. So anyway, we were... it's a little hazy right now, but a fight broke out outside of the dance, and these two Gardena guys were battling the Baby Black Juans, and they were good fighters. This one guy was an athlete, he was doing leaps and, you know, like man, he was knocking our guys out, two of 'em. Me and my friend were just standing there, and we were, like, admiring them, like, oh, my god, you know. "My god, we're not gonna, (our) guys aren't gonna beat these guys." We didn't really want to intervene, but these guys were doing such a good job, we had to, we had to kind of stick our two cents in there. We were in a empty lot. They had some construction going on there, so they had an empty paint bucket. So my friend picks up the paint bucket, and we're still watching this guy fighting, he's doing a good job. So we slip in there and I kick him one in the, you know, in the family jewels. And that puts a stop to him, and my friend hits him with the, slams the empty paint bucket on him, whammo. And that did it. They're, like, staggering, you know. They went down, "All right, that's it. Let's call it a, call it an evening." Then our Chinatown friends come in. I said, "Yeah, well, I think you better leave because the police ought to be coming pretty soon." So before they leave, they shot up every car. Said, "Ooh, that's a little bit more than we wanted to..."

So anyway, the following day was Sunday, and then I heard that the Gardena folks were having a picnic in Griffith Park. So that's close to where we live, so I said, "Okay, now we can deliver the knockout punch, the winner got to go fight. We're just gonna go up there and now use diplomacy." So we got over there, and they saw us, and yeah, we didn't, I only had four or five guys with me. We went over there, and they were just like, you know, like, "What's up? You here to start something?" I said, "No, no, no. We just heard that you're with the west side, and we just wanted to know." 'Cause they had no idea whether I had a bunch of people coming, or I would be calling people to get over there, here they were. They said, "No, no, no, we're not... who told you that?" He said, "Well, that's what we, that's what we heard." I said, "No, not at all." They said, "We'll we're glad. We just, just hope you guys are having a good time." So after that, then Gardena just separated off from the west side, and then there was now them and us. And it really came down to a nasty one, where we wound up invading Jefferson. And, oh, it was brutal. My friend that I know, they hit him in the head with a tire iron, and so the cops told us, "Yeah, you guys came looking for trouble and you found it. You're friend's dying over in Georgia Street," that was the emergency hospital. So it really led to a lot of gunfire at that time. I thought my friend... I could have sworn he shot five or six, but he missed 'em all. You know, the thing about it was, we were really bent, angry with him. And you know why? 'Cause he missed. 'Cause we thought our friend was dying, and, "You missed." So we had to race back to J-Flats to prepare an alibi, 'cause they were gonna come right for us, you know. You can't do that kind of thing, firing away, bullets were going into homes and everything. And broke out the deck of cards, and, you know, we're playing poker half the night. The next day, squad cars came into J-Flats and they just parked. If they saw you coming out of the house, boy, "Get in." They took you down, they shook you down. "Who started this?" "Who did this?" And that was getting to be a little bit too much, so I said, "Wow, man, time for me to go in the army." So the next time my deferment was up -- they only gave you deferments for a certain amount of time. I said, "I'm getting out of Dodge here." I'm tired of... I don't want to go to dances armed to the teeth anymore. That's no fun. All the public dances are gone, all the parties are gone, now we're in a continual state of warfare, and that's no fun, you know. I just want out of this thing. Maybe if I get in the army and they send me far away to Korea or Germany, I could start a new life or something like that. In a sense, that's what happened.

<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.