<Begin Segment 14>

TI: In the first part we, we talked about your earlier life and got you all the way up to when you first got to Tule Lake, and you had just talked about the weather difference, that when you got there it was summer, so it was hot, but the winters are really cold, like ten below zero.

FS: Yeah.

TI: So let's talk a little bit more about Tule Lake and let me just first talk about some of your leisure activities. I mean, you were there for a while. What, what kind of things did you do?

FS: What did I do?

TI: Yeah.

FS: Sports. I did a lot of sports. I did, start out with the regular baseball, and then from there we went to basketball then went to softball. After that it was mostly all softball.

TI: So describe that a little bit more in terms of the, first baseball. How was that organized? Like, what kind of fields did you have and how did that work?

FS: Fields was already kind of made already, seemed like it, 'cause when we start playing it was already graded and everything. But the only thing different is my whole block, our own block, we had a team by ourselves. We made, they made up a team, so we never play outside of our block, but we just, we did pick up somebody else from just playing one position, but beside that, all, even the young pitcher we had was, was younger than us. Softball, he was throwing softball. As long as they throw the ball over the plate, we got to catch it. So that was it. Beside that, activity was, rainy day we're in the block manager's office. We're playing, we're either playing bridge, some poker, mahjong. [Laughs]

TI: And so who would you be playing with in the block manager's office?

FS: All the block, the young guys, young kids they used, we used to play ball with, they were the one all play together over there.

TI: And so the block manager, was he a pretty good guy so he just let you guys come and play?

FS: Oh, yeah.

TI: And what block were you in?

FS: Block (11).

TI: Okay, so Block (11). The softball team --

FS: They call it Ward 4, Ward 4 and Block 11. Block 11's right in the middle of the ward. I think I got a picture of that, if you want to see it later.

TI: Yeah, maybe later we'll look at that. So softball, other sports, you played cards, mahjong. How about other activities? Do you remember, like, hikes or anything like that? Did you do anything like that?

FS: Yeah, I did, I did take a hike one time. They call it Castle Rock. I took a bunch of young kids, maybe nine, ten year old kids, and just the two of us, myself and another guy named, I think it was a guy named Ben Takamoto. He and I took the group, must've been about twelve, twelve kids, and we, we were, we walked to a place called Castle Rock. That was okay, but then we went up and went, came on the other side. We went over the mountain, came out other side. We come in, walkin' back, we were walkin' home and the MPs stopped us. "You're not, you're not supposed to be out here." So I said, "Well, we just, we just walked up to watchamacall." He said, "No, you guys stay here. Now wait. We're gonna send, we're gonna send a truck over here to pick you guys up." So the truck came and they gave us a ride back to the camp. That was it. No questions asked. [Laughs]

TI: Well, when you left with the, these boys, did you just walk out of the front gate or did you go through the fence? How did you...

FS: Walked out the front gate. There was no question, at that time there was no question, saying that you can't go or what. This, somebody else was going out, too, so that's why we just walked out.

TI: And so you walked up to Castle Rock and it was really just on the way back that the MP stopped you?

FS: Yeah.

TI: Okay. Any other adventures like that, that you can remember? Anything else?

FS: That's all, that's all I could remember.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.