<Begin Segment 9>

SY: So you really had a good amount of fun with your friends.

FK: And my block there were only five or six boys and we had our share of fun and getting into trouble and mischievous things that... which usually they pointed to me as the leader of that and I spent many many lonesome weeks by myself because the other parents said that, "You're not to associate with Frank because he's a bad influence." [Laughs]

SY: So you were kind of --

FK: I was a mischievous one.

SY: I see, and do you remember what you did?

FK: You know, being a boy and looking for animals to pets, in other words looking for pets and so we thought we'd catch some rabbits and we tried that for several weeks and you can't catch a rabbit it's... they're too smart. But I noted that the corner of the camp where they administrators lived they had cages where they kept their rabbits.

SY: Really?

FK: Now whether they kept it for as a pet or whether they kept it as a food because the people in the south they eat a lot of things that we normally don't eat. So I got my gang together and four of us went there and we snuck up on this cage and we stole about four or five bunnies. And we brought it back and we kept it in the boiler room where it's always warm and we fed the bunnies milk and then the little kids in the block said they'd like some pets too. So I told them alright I'll get some more for you. And I gathered my troop again and we ventured to... you know, you should never attack the same place twice. This is what I learned and to this day I remember that, you never go to the same place twice. And I went back there and we saw that guy, the adult there, he was doing gardening work and we kept... we lied low and then as soon as he went into the house I said, "Okay come on let's go." So we went in there and I snuck up there and just as I put my hand in there he comes running out of the house with a hoe in his hand and I tell you... did you know that if you're scared and you're running you're feet doesn't touch the ground? We took off so fast we kept running and we ran out of the camp.

SY: You ran out of the camp?

FK: Out of the camp and now we had to figure how the hell we're going to get back into camp and so we made our way and then the patrol came and picked us up, the four of us. And they brought us through the main entrance and my dad was the superintendent of the produce and fruit warehouse so he accepted all the fruits for the camp and then he'd warehouse them and he would distribute it through all the blocks. Obviously he heard of the rabbits thefts or thieves and so he came, of all the persons, he came to the car he came and he said he wanted to see the kids that created this problem and as I saw him coming I went [slides down in his chair] down as low as I could so that my head was below the window and he opened the door and he looked at me and I looked at him and we both... I didn't say anything, he didn't say anything, he just closed the door and then oh my god, all hell broke loose. They took us into the police department, the camp police and they gave us a lecture and they told us, "Well, you boys did something wrong and you're going to have to pay for it so every day you're going to have to go the cotton fields and pick five hundred pounds of cotton every day for x amount of days." And I don't know, I couldn't even imagine what five hundred pounds would be but that's a big bag of cotton and they scared the daylights out of us. And so then they released us and says, "Okay well, maybe the next time you do something like this we'll do this but this time we'll let you go." And I came home and ready for a beating and everything else and he didn't say one word and of course the next couple of weeks I was by myself, nobody associated with me. [Laughs] That was my first experience of being arrested at the age of seven or eight or nine.

SY: That is terrible.

FK: So I've been a good boy since.

SY: Ever since? No further arrests?

FK: Well, there were a couple of them... not a couple of them but there were some incidents that I'd like to forget, yes.

SY: So now, 'cause it's so hard to believe that you were that young when all of this went on. This was from about eight to eleven, ten... eight to ten? I remember you telling me a story about starting your own business.

FK: I don't know whether... I'd like to think it was to contribute to the family fund but I've always felt that I would like to do something on my own and make some money. And so I ordered through the... in those days we all received free from Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward catalog and those catalogs were maybe about two inches thick. And it's all colored merchandise and they give you price and so forth and I looked it up and I ordered a shoe shine kit, black and brown, those are the two and so when it came I opened up my business and in the mess hall I told everybody that if anybody needed their shoe shined to let me know. And I got one old man that brought his shoe and said, "Okay Frank, shine my shoe." I don't remember how much I was going to charge, nickel or dime or whatever and he had a brown shoe and in my excitement I opened up and I put it on... I put a black paste on his brown shoe and you can't take that off.

SY: You can't.

FK: And I looked at that and I says, oh my god, what did I do, I smeared the black... it's not a paste what is it... polish on his brown shoe and so I had to explain to him. He didn't say anything, he didn't get upset, he didn't... obviously he was upset but he didn't say anything, he didn't hit me or scold me or anything and he paid me. And I felt so bad that I closed shop. So I was in business one hour and I closed shop and I think to this day little bit of that reminded me of if you're going to do something you better do some research. Of course in my book there I've got a number of businesses I started which I shouldn't have started so I learned a little bit but not enough.

SY: But it's interesting to know that that was your very first business.

FK: Very first, yes.

SY: And yet you continued to think of ways to make money even though your first business was such a failure.

FK: Yes, so every time I polish my shoe it reminds me. [Laughs]

SY: You still polish your own shoes?

FK: Of course.

SY: And your... it's interesting to me that you had this desire to make money at such a young age.

FK: I think all boys have that desire to do something or accomplish something whether it's sports or whatever it is. We have this inborn thing of leadership or whatever you want to call it.

SY: And were you into sports at all?

FK: Well, being that young I really enjoyed football and we used to have football teams in the camp, they used to play other camps and so forth. And I went to every game I mean I really enjoyed football but as you can see I never grew out of my shell, five feet three and a half, so football was by all means my sport and there was really no sport that I could participate except for judo which I did after the war and came back. I did and I enjoyed that and today of course judo is out of the question and I took a little bit of kendo but that too as you get old, golf is the only thing that could get my interest and I feel good about.

SY: But you've always been interested in sports throughout your life?

FK: Yes.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.