<Begin Segment 17>

MN: I want to ask you about the fights. Terminal Islanders have a reputation for getting into fight a lot, and you mentioned you didn't get involved in fights.

JM: No.

MN: And you actually stopped some fights. Can you share with us some of these stories? There's this one story you talked about, the older guy, this older guy used to watch over you at Terminal Island? Tell us the story about how he was gonna go into a fight.

JM: He liked this girl, and the other guy was trying to cut in. So -- I didn't know that -- so a whole bunch of us went over to beat him up. Then when I found out what it was, I got in there and stopped it, and this guy, he was a big, tough guy, but he used to watch over me in Terminal Island, so everything I say he'd follow my instruction. So I didn't have any problem.

MN: You were also friends with this professional boxer from Hawaii who ended up in Manzanar.

JM: Yes.

MN: And he got into a fight with the Exclusive 20s?

JM: Yes. [Laughs] Before the war. He had a date, was coming down the stairway, and one of the Exclusive 20 guys came up and took a poke at him, but he was a fighter, so he fended off and beat him up. Then all the Exclusive 20 guys came up to beat him up. Now all the professional boxers upstairs, all came down, so that stopped everything.

MN: Now there was a bunch of Exclusive 20 guys in Manzanar, and he was by himself. How did he get protection in Manzanar?

JM: Well, we got to be friends, so he told us, he'll teach us how to box. So he got in our group, so he didn't have any trouble with the Exclusive 20s.

MN: It sounds like most of the fights that Terminal Islanders got into were over a girl. Is that right?

JM: [Laughs] No, I don't know. Well, you know how it is. Some guys, they're trying to show off, I guess, and say things, not against the Terminal Islanders, but some irritating things.

[Interruption]

MN: So I know that, some people used to call the Manzanar folks Yogores.

JM: That's the older group.

MN: What does that mean?

JM: Yogore is, how would you... yogore is like a fighting group.

MN: Kind of like the thugs.

JM: Uh-huh.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.