<Begin Segment 6>

MN: So I wanted to ask you also, you were talking about they started to show movies in Poston. What kind of movies did they show there?

CO: Very, very old movies at the beginning. We would take our stools or any kind of thing we could sit on, and it would be outdoors, and we saw a lot of silent movies and we saw, I do remember Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, probably Charlie Chaplin, lots of old stuff like that. And as time went on, they got a little bit more closer, modern movies. I remember a movie called The Sullivan Brothers. The Sullivan Brothers was a movie about the five Sullivan boys who went to war as a group and all went down with one ship. And everybody cried their eyes out over this family that lost these five boys in the navy. So it's such an anomaly that all this was going on where we were kind of in the war and not of the war somehow. The war seemed very distant because we were so isolated. Maybe if I'd been older I wouldn't have been so isolated, but I was hardly aware that there was this huge shooting war going on out there, except sort of in a very intellectual way, that we're at war. And then, of course, all the old Issei, they were so much into Japan winning the war that that's mostly what I heard, was how Japan was winning the war.

MN: Do you think they really believed that, or was that way of trying to keep the morale up?

CO: Well, both. Some of 'em really believed. I mean, that was something that some of them really hung on to fiercely.

MN: Was that, are you talking about just your block or was that most of Poston I?

CO: I can't speak for most of Poston I, but certainly in our block and nearby blocks, there were a lot of Issei men who were really mad and really upset about our situation and that they were waiting for Japan to win the war.

MN: 'Cause early on in November of '42, Poston had a huge camp-wide strike.

CO: Yeah.

MN: And can you just share with us your memories of that strike?

CO: Uh-huh, yeah. Well, let's see. I know what it was about, but as a kid, I don't think I was really aware of the details of it except that it started out as just a protest against these fellows who were jailed for beating up JACL, or people who were thought to be JACL sympathizers or informers or what, and that this was what the protest was. But it snowballed into a camp-wide protest which involved everything. And so, again, it was sort of an exciting thing that was going on. My goodness, they were burning bonfires all night long, and there was this strong pro-Japan quality to it all, with the singing of Japanese songs and all kinds of makeshift flags flying, the hinomaru and all that sort of thing, and my father, being kind of really involved in all that. So we spent nights running from bonfire to bonfire and just kind of like, it was like a holiday almost. Gee, it was just lots of energy in the air, you might say. But I personally, I guess I really didn't understand the issues at that time, except that they were protesting.

MN: When you were going around at night with the bonfires, did you feel threatened that maybe this might get out of hand, maybe people might get killed? Or did you not feel that tenseness at all?

CO: No, did not. Again, luckily, Wade Head, who was the head of Poston administration, and his deputy, handled it in a fairly diplomatic manner. This is what I know afterwards. But he agreed to listen to the grievances and maybe change some things or whatever. But anyway, there wasn't... my recollection is it didn't feel like the army was going to come in or anything like that. And again, Poston, we were kind of lucky because it was run by people from the Indian Service who had had some kind of training dealing with, quote/unquote "indigenous peoples" or something like that, so that they were a little bit cooler about handling us. That I only know later, of course, but it didn't lead to... and I think there was a genuine attempt to have the people in the camps have more say on what was going on, or to be able to at least air their grievances. 'Cause things settled down after that.

MN: Now, at this time, was Hisaye, was she on the newspaper staff?

CO: Uh-huh.

MN: And did you have discussions with her regarding the strike?

CO: Well, I may have. I don't recall any specific things, but I used to hang out at her place a lot, and we talked about everything as I recall. And I must say, I don't know why she tolerated a little kid hanging around, but she did. Anyway, so maybe she gave me some balance about what was going on. Yeah, we became good friends throughout all this. And she was writing for that, what was it called? Poston Chronicle, I think that was the name of the camp paper. And Wakako Yamauchi was also in our block, so she was there, too. She and Hisaye were good friends at that time.

MN: Wakako is also younger than Hisaye, too.

CO: Not much, three years. She's eighty-six now.

MN: 'Cause you're quite, much younger than Hisaye.

CO: Nine years.

MN: Let me ask you a little bit more, not about the strike, but can you share with us your story about meeting Isamu Noguchi?

CO: Oh, yeah, that was wandering around in camp. Yeah, 'cause I guess I was a nosy kid, I don't know. I just had a lot of time on my hands. We all did. So I don't know what other kids did. One day -- and I think he was in Block 6, which was not our quad, it was the quad over. I just happened upon this man who had the door wide open. I think it was the end barrack of the so-called "recreation barrack" that they set aside for us. And he was working away on chiseling a bust out of what I remember as pink stone, pink marble, perhaps. Yeah, and he was chipping away, and here was this head gradually emerging from all this chipping away. And I had never seen anybody do anything like this before. I was very quiet and I stood and I watched him for a long time. He let me just watch. I don't think we exchanged any words or anything, he just let me watch. And then I picked up a handful of the chips that were on the floor, took 'em home. I guess I never went back, I don't know. I think maybe he left camp shortly after that. But he was also a very striking-looking individual. He was hapa, and there weren't very many at that time. So here was this man who looked different. He was a very handsome guy, and doing this kind of activity. And I'll never forget seeing him.

MN: When you walked into that rec room, though, did you know that was Isamu Noguchi?

CO: No, I didn't know. Maybe I asked somebody afterwards. Maybe Hisaye knew. I think she did. I think she did. I may have mentioned it to her or something, but I don't remember really.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.