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MN: Now, since 1964 you've also been really active with the Manzanar High School reunion committee and, and one of the things that the reunion committee did was to make that Manzanar model at the Manzanar Historic Site. Can you share with us how that story came about?

BK: Yeah, when the Manzanar site was taken over by the government a lot of us in our class felt that it was lacking because no one knew what the camp looked like. They had a big photo on the wall, but that's not like having a diorama like we have at the museum that lays out the whole camp and the blocks. So Sam Ono, who is a classmate of mine, he's a structural engineer and he is so brilliant. He said, we're talking one day, I says, "You know, Sam, the people up at Manzanar want to have a camp layout. They want a miniature camp layout." He says, "Well, we don't have the figures." I said, "What are you talkin' about?" "Well, we got a map and the site, site of the barracks and where they were located..." Says, "I could put something together." So it turns out that I had one of the studies made of the camp that the government had made and inside it had the measurements of everything, so I took it over to Sam. Sam says, "Hey, we could do it." So we call members of our committee, Archie Miyatake and Saigo, what's his name from West L.A., anyway, some of our old classmates, Kaz Inagai, to a workshop. What he did, Sam, he got all the measurements and he cut up a big map into different parts, and he knew what the measurements were of the barracks and so he had cutouts made of the barracks and he laid it out for us. He had about six pieces laid out and he had miniatures, sizes of the barracks and the larger places that we needed, the hospital and all the, he had everything laid out. He's an engineer and he does everything precisely, everything perfect, and a structural engineer is one of the top engineers in the field. I mean, they design the high rises and, and so he's one of the best, but he's retired, he had nothing to do, and when I gave him all these figures he just he just grabbed them. He transformed that into a display and we used to meet down in San Pedro from, one of his relatives had a big warehouse where they laid out the forms and the little barracks and everything. And we used to go down on weekends with our high school crew, work on it, and Sam just took it upon himself to do everything. He says, "Okay, you guys work on this." And he had little miniature barracks and he had other stuff that looked like trees where you'd place the trees, and he had everything ready for us. He just did an amazing job. And so we prepared that for our Manzanar people and he had it built in sections that you could put one on top of the other, and we put it in a car and they took it up there and put it together. And so it's up there now as a display, and that way people could see, just like we have here at this museum, what the camp looked like, what... any camp would be fitting that model because the barracks are lined up in the same sequence. But yeah, we were blessed to have Sam around, and we spent about maybe two months and I would go out and buy hamburgers for them on Saturday. Somebody else would buy hamburgers the next weekend. Yeah, we worked on that and, and Sam and another fellow took it up and installed it at Manzanar. So that was our contribution. Yeah, so you heard about it, huh?

MN: Okay Bruce, I've asked my questions.

BK: That's good.

MN: Is there anything you want to add, or did I miss anything that you want to share with us?

BK: No, not really. I'm just, I'm just happy that I was able to put everything in writing for the museum. I just put that book together and they had the signing on August 14th. We sold over a hundred books. They're gonna sell some more and I'm gonna do outreach program. They're gonna go out to San Fernando this month, mid month, and sell some more books. But the program we had for the 25th on August the 14th, I had Mary come down and sing and she sang my favorite song, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," and she just, they did a wonderful job. She's so great. And it amazes me, and I tell my wife, I says, "These Manzanar people are forever doing things I can't believe. I mean, we're still getting along, and they're still doing great things."

MN: And when you say Mary, you're talking about the "Songbird of Manzanar," Mary Kageyama Nomura?

BK: Yeah. She started singing in Manzanar, that we know of, and she's still singing and her whole family sings. I've heard her son sing and they got, they all have beautiful voices. And her son-in-law has a band, orchestra, and I don't know if he performs, and if he does he does in Orange, Orange County, but her daughter also sings. The whole family sings. It's beautiful. So what are you trying to do, write something up? I already wrote my book.

MN: These are my notes.

BK: Yeah, you got a lot of notes. Okay.

MN: All right, Bruce, thank you. I appreciate your time and coming down here twice and sharing your story. I appreciate very much.

BK: Oh, that's okay. You see, I'm unemployed.

MN: But very busy volunteering.

BK: [Laughs] Yeah.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.