<Begin Segment 17>

MN: I'm gonna go back to your high school years.

TY: Okay.

MN: And I know you were very athletic and you were very good in pole vaulting.

TY: Yeah.

MN: And you went to school at the same time as Louis Zamperini, who has Torrance Municipal Airport named after him.

TY: Yeah.

MN: Did you compete against him?

TY: Yeah, we did. He was too good for us. He was in varsity and I was in the C class. We went to the same meet, but he was varsity, so we didn't compete with him.

MN: How did you get into pole vaulting?

TY: How did we? We learned how to do it.

MN: What got you interested in pole vaulting?

TY: I wanted to be up high as I could want to be. That was my dream, to go up high as I can go up high. And then when we were kids we used to go chop, chop eucalyptus tree limbs, long one, real skinny, long one, and we used to do it at home, see who can jump the highest. And that's what got me interested in it, and I used to high jump a little bit. And pole vaulting was interesting because you're, you swing yourself up in the air high as you can. Real interesting.

MN: Did you ever letter in pole vaulting?

TY: No, 'cause Coach, Coach... I broke one of the new pole vaulting poles, so then I didn't know how to replace it because my father didn't have no money and I didn't have no time to help him to recoup the expense of a new pole, so then I just ignored it and the coach came to tell me that, "I was gonna give you a letter this year, but you broke one of my best poles, so I'm not gonna give you no letter." "It doesn't matter. If I get a letter okay, if not okay, but I'm sorry I cannot pay you back. You know my father don't have no money and I don't have no time to help you." So him and I departed on a bad note, but that was my junior year, so we made up after that. So I wish I could've recouped the money and paid him back.

MN: So when you were going to school, what was the pole made out of?

TY: Bamboo.

MN: What is it made out now?

TY: Fiberglass, aluminum.

MN: So what other athletic activities were you involved in?

TY: I was involved in track. I ran the 660, 660 and the 440. That's what they used to call it, 440 and 660. I did pretty good in the 660. I came in second, third all the time, but never, never the best. Because I had to help my folks and I didn't have time to train in school.

MN: Did you play any team sports?

TY: Team sports, no.

MN: Baseball, basketball?

TY: No. I just done that in Japanese school. Japanese school, coming back to Japanese school we had a baseball team, and we competed against East Hawthorne and Gardena, Compton, Rafu Betsuin, Higashi Hongwanji, I think, yeah, El Segundo, Compton, Torrance. We competed in that. I played baseball then, through the Japanese school.

MN: What was your team called?

TY: West Hawthorne. West Hawthorne baseball team.

MN: You didn't have a fancy name like Taiyo.

TY: No, West Hawthorne, we called ourselves West Hawthorne. The Hijis played, Shioko's brother played and all that. We used to play against Nishimoris, they're Comptons.

MN: And what position did you play?

TY: Me, my position? I was a catcher. I played catcher. I loved to catch, so I played catcher.

MN: So, and you mentioned you had to work on your farm quite a bit, did you resent not being able to participate more in sports activities because you had to work on the farm?

TY: Oh yes. I wanted to be more active in, active in high school, but I just couldn't. "Got to come home and help Dad. Come home and help Dad." So I really didn't enjoy my high school activities. But I enjoyed my judo, and so I used to look forward to it.

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