<Begin Segment 10>

MN: Now, when you got to Santa Anita, where did your family live, in the horse stalls or parking lot?

MS: Parking lot.

MN: What was your first impression of Santa Anita?

MS: Well, I didn't know. I didn't have any impressions, but when we got there, the bunk, I mean, the bunkhouses where we're gonna, were just being built, and looked at it and, oh. But it wasn't that bad on us in the parking lot.

MN: Who did you live with? Your father was not with you yet.

MS: No. Just my mother, my two sisters, and brother, five of us. Two sisters were already married, so they lived with their family.

MN: Santa Anita had a riot. What do you remember of the riot?

MS: I remember the riots, but I don't remember the details of why. Must've been about food or something, I don't know, but the younger kids would, used to taunt the guards. I never, I was there, but never did anything to taunt them, but the younger kids did it, yeah. But anyway, riots are, you can't, it's uncontrollable. I mean, later on when we're in Japan and so forth, there was, was the army, but you can't tell what they'll do, so in Japan, on May 1st was like a Communist, red flags flying all over and all these labor union guys putting on a demonstration to try to scare us guys that were... but riots are uncontrollable if they get out of hand. A lot of people can get hurt, so I'm leery about riot control.

MN: At Santa Anita, during the riots, were you afraid for your life?

MS: No, not myself. We weren't taunting, but we were curious to see what the guards would do when they're, but they were pretty well controlled. I mean, from what I understand how riot controls were there, so they just...

MN: Now, while you were at Santa Anita, what kind of job did you have?

MS: Working in a hobby shop, model building, teaching kids how to build model airplanes. It's, Henry Oiye was a pilot, so he started the hobby shop and got us interested. That's how Archie met me, Archie Miyatake. He used to chase the model airplanes that we flew.

MN: Before the war your family knew the Miyatakes. How close were they?

MS: I think, I'm not too sure, but I think my mother and father were their baishakunin.

MN: For Toyo Miyatake?

MS: Huh?

MN: For Toyo Miyatake?

MS: Yeah. They had that photo shop in Little Tokyo, so my father, mother knew them well.

MN: But Archie was a lot younger than you at the time.

MS: Yeah, must be ten, twenty, or ten years, at least ten years.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.