<Begin Segment 14>

MN: You were still a child, so did you go to school in Poston?

YK: Oh, yeah, we went to school. We had teachers who were, basically volunteers. They, most of them weren't real teachers, but then they taught, and so we went to grammar school.

MN: Were these teachers, were they Nisei college students or were they outside hakujin people?

YK: No, mostly... well, in the lower grades it was all mostly just Nisei teachers. Of course, in the high schools they probably brought in some hakujin, but I wasn't aware of that.

MN: So how would you compare the education you were getting at Poston to the one that you were getting at Trabuco Canyon?

YK: Well, yeah. Well, actually went to El Toro, but...

MN: Oh, El Toro, I'm sorry.

YK: Well, I didn't notice too much difference. At that time, you're in your lower grades and so it doesn't seem to have much... I don't recall learning too much.

MN: Where was the school? Was it pretty far from your barrack?

YK: No, I think it was only a couple blocks away. So it was pretty close by, so we just walked to it.

MN: And you know, late 1942, Poston had this huge strike that lasted for days. Do you remember that?

YK: Yeah, kind of vaguely. It was, people were kind of protesting, and they were saying (come). So anyway, they arrested some of the judo instructors and said that, hey, they were leading the protests. I don't recall very much about it other than that... and that probably was because we weren't getting decent food. [Laughs]

MN: Do you know if your dad went out there and helped, was part of the protest?

YK: I don't really know.

MN: Now your first Christmas at Poston, do you recall what that was like?

YK: I don't recall having a Christmas.

MN: How about Oshogatsu?

YK: Well, probably the mess hall tried to give us something a little different, but we're all just going every day, and they're just cooking food in these huge vats. And sugar was always in short supply, so we didn't, I don't recall any celebrations at all.

MN: Now while you were in camp, you cracked your left wrist bone. What happened?

YK: Oh, yeah. Well, we kids are always kind of wrestling around, and so one time we were wrestling and we were falling over and I put my left hand out. And I cracked it. I had a small crack in my wrist, so it didn't hurt that much, but when we went to the doctor, he put a cast on, so I had a cast for a long time there, six weeks. And they said, well, when you wrestle and you fall, with the weight of two, you don't put your hand out, you've got to land on your body. So after that I was sent to judo school, and others had started earlier, so I was kind of a beginner there, so I wasn't very good at it. And I was the one that was usually thrown. So I learned how to fall. So throughout my life I found that falling, how to fall was very crucial, and I never broke anything again, even in skiing later. [Laughs]

MN: You know, let me go back to the hospital. The doctor at Poston, was that a hakujin doctor or a Japanese American doctor?

YK: No, it was Japanese American, yeah.

MN: Do you remember the doctor's name?

YK: No.

MN: How about the nurses there? Were they Japanese Americans?

YK: Yeah.

MN: How did you feel about going to the hospital there?

YK: Well, didn't feel any different. It was just, I thought my wrist wasn't that bad. But then after they took the x-rays, they said, "No, there's a small break."

MN: And then you said after that, so you learned to fall in judo classes.

YK: Yeah.

MN: Who was your sensei?

YK: Oh, I don't recall.

MN: Did you have a judogi?

YK: Oh, yeah.

MN: Where did you get it?

YK: Probably Sears & Roebuck again.

MN: They were selling that kind of stuff, huh?

YK: Yeah. Well, I guess so.

MN: Or someone could have sewed it in camp.

YK: Yeah, it could be that people were sewing them.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.