<Begin Segment 21>

TI: It's such an amazing story, and so describe to me, at this point you're like about nineteen years old, '43, the other prisoners, what age range was in there?

MY: For the most part they were older than me. I think I was more of the younger, if not youngest, member of the whole stockade group. I think, well, there were several others, I'm sure, that looked younger than me.

TI: And was the barracks pretty filled? You said two hundred people.

MY: Well, at that point by count, I think, there was about two hundred twenty people maximum, about that period. And they were between two barracks, where each barrack, the classic barrack was twenty feet by hundred feet. If you remove all the rooms you could pack a lot of people in both sides because between that cot and this cot was probably no more than this much space.

TI: So they really packed you in there, yeah. In terms of inside the stockade, was there like a hierarchy in terms of how you organized yourselves inside the...

MY: I was standing by this cot, which became my cot, and there as no, as far as I was aware, there was no hierarchy of any kind in this stockade, I mean, this barrack. In the other stockade were the leaders. Now, how many were self made leaders, how many were -- no, I'm sure there were no voting procedures in the stockade, but somehow the leaders, by reputation or by self proclamation or by just talking, got into that leadership group. I was not part of it. I knew the, some of the names, but beyond that had no awareness of their action.

TI: You mentioned your brother and seeing him, how about your father? Do you recall --

MY: My father was in the stockade also.

TI: Was he in the other barrack?

MY: But he was in the other barrack and my brother was also, so I wasn't aware. So who went which barrack was God know why.

TI: Earlier you talked about the weightlifting, so you were pretty strong physically, you took martial arts. Did that ever become a benefit for you, just knowing martial arts, being strong? Did that ever help you?

MY: No. I never made use of my martial arts, other than outside trying to pick up a ball, which I threw to my dog.

TI: Okay, so all that training, all those years -- [Laughs]

MY: [Laughs] All that beautiful training came into effect, but I've never had to use it in any way verbally or physically.

TI: And so your teacher would've been proud because that's what he wanted you, I remember initially you said you weren't supposed to...

MY: I'm sure Professor Matsuyama would've been proud of me.

TI: So Barbara, what questions, any questions in terms of inside the stockade or anything that you want to ask about?

BT: Well, did you have a routine in the stockade?

MY: No. Other than eating there was no need for any routine. You just talk with whatever you, whatever subject that you can talk about.

BT: So what sort of things were you talking about?

MY: I have no idea.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.