Densho Digital Archive - Archie Miyatake Interview (denshovh-marchie-02-0025)

<Begin Segment 25>

MN: Now, you're from Los Angeles --

AM: Huh?

MN: You're from Los Angeles.

AM: Yes.

MN: And at that time I understand the zoot suit was pretty popular, so in camp were you one of those guys that wore the zoot suit and had the pachuko haircut?

AM: Well, I would've wanted to, but I couldn't do it because we were, well, for one thing, some of those trousers I would have had taken in a little bit, but not that much, little bit, kind of casual type of zoot suit. But it was pretty fashionable. Some were pretty extreme, but yeah, well, there was nothing else to do, so we had to do something.

MN: Did you have the duck tail?

AM: Well... no, I couldn't grow my hair that much, but it was, well, I think what, this pomade that people used to buy, it was for that purpose. It was very thick pomade. I had some of that. I did little bit, but not that much.

MN: Now, for your high school prom, was that 1945?

AM: I graduated 1944.

MN: '44, I'm sorry. Who did you take to your high school prom?

AM: Well, we couldn't go anywhere but just to go to the prom that there was at the auditorium, and then after that, well, we spent all the time, most of the time just doing the dancing and thing. And then we would walk home and that was about it. We couldn't do anything too much.

MN: But who, who's we?

AM: I have to take her [points to wife] for my prom, my wife.

MN: Who's your wife now, Takeko.

AM: Yeah.

MN: So you were, were you two dating, as you can date in camp?

AM: Yeah.

MN: How did you meet her? Was it in class?

AM: No. I just happened to see her in school, so I found out where she lived, so I went to her house and introduced myself and started dating. [Laughs] It was, there was no places where we could go to meet or anything, so the only way was to go directly to where she lived. And then I was able to speak Japanese, so I spoke to her parents in Japanese because they, they couldn't speak English that well and so that's how I kind of worked it in. [Laughs]