<Begin Segment 16>

MN: Okay, let's go back to... you know, what I wanted to ask you is, when you were in high school, you joined the Constituent gang.

Mo N: Uh-huh, social club.

MN: Social club. Were you one of the founding members?

Mo N: No.

MN: How did this group form?

Mo N: Well, like I said, there was a bunch of us who grew up together on the west side who were at Centenary, we were going to church there, we played all the sports at Centenary, and we were going to judo. And the bulk of them ended up going to Poly from Foshay. And at Poly, that's when they decided to form a group. So they formed the Constituents, then right after they formed, then my blood came and told me about it, "Come on, come on to Poly and check it out." So that's why I went, and so when I went there, then I joined.

MN: So what was the age group of the Constituents?

Mo N: Well, their age range was pretty narrow, one or two years at most, difference between people in the group. But we had generational groups, and under us came the Junior Constituents and then under them were the Baby Constituents. On the west side above us was the Baby Seinans, they were a little bit older than us, and then the Seinans. And the Seinans go back to before the war. That's the district name.

MN: So why didn't you folks just join the Seinans?

Mo N: Well, I think, yeah, I often wondered about that myself. I think that when the Baby Seinans formed and made themselves distinct from the Seinans, I think that pretty much ended that whole thing around naming yourself after the district. And then the gang started to form, Baby Seinans were probably the first gang. Seinans were kind of a gang but they represented a district. So in the Seinans, now, there were people, age ranges from teenagers to thirty, forty year old guys coming up from the war and all that kind of shit. But the Seinans were people right above us, so maybe four, five years older than us. And then, yeah Baby Seinans, or two years, and then us, and then younger brothers, a lot of our people were the Junior Constituents and Baby Constituents. And the Ministers, the Ministers go one, two, three, that kind of stuff.

MN: But the ministers came out, I mean, way later than after the Constituents, right?

Mo N: Yeah, yeah.

MN: Now how many people were roughly in the Constituents when you were there?

Mo N: Roughly someplace maybe a dozen, two dozen.

MN: And who did you guys consider to be your biggest rivals?

Mo N: Black Juans, the General, those guys over there in Virgil. They called it "Japanese Hollywood," right, 'cause it's right on the edge there right by City College. The Virgil, 'cause that goes through different names, right? J-flats, Japanese Hollywood, there's another one they called it something. Yeah, I think J-flats is probably the more famous one. Black Juans go through generational thing, too, right?

MN: And you mentioned the General, that was Jim Matsuoka.

Mo N: Yeah.

MN: Was he pretty notorious at that time?

Mo N: Yeah, yeah. People knew who he was. We knew he was part of the enemy set. Yeah, they came over and shot up the guy's house, turns out they shot up the wrong house. He wasn't that great of a general. [Laughs] His reconnaissance wasn't too cool.

MN: So when you were growing up, was it common for, like, the Constituents and the other groups to hang out at Atomic Cafe at night?

Mo N: When we were in high school, no. Everybody had their drive-in restaurants that they hung out at. West side people hung out at Scribner's that used to be on Jefferson and Crenshaw, then they went over to Hodee's on La Brea and, what was that, Rodeo? East side people hung out at Rough Rider's? The one across the street from Sears, there used to be a drive-in across the street from Sears. Eastside folks used to hang out there, and some of the Virgil people, the Black Juans used to hang out there, too. I think maybe because they were making alliances with those east side people. But yeah, everybody had a place that was their turf, and when you went into their turf, you were asking for it. [Laughs]

MN: Now you mentioned the alliances, who did the Constituents have alliances with?

Mo N: We liked to brag about shit like that. Because we were kind of King Kong, we ruled the roost. We didn't have no alliances with anybody, but I'm sure we did. We were tight with some of the San Fernando people and so were the Black Juans.

MN: What about Gardena?

Mo N: Gardena was the sticks in those days. Went down there to go visit a young lady out there and go out to the farm. I remember going out to the farm visiting a young lady, didn't have enough money for gas so the family, the farm would have its own gas tank out there, fill up with gas out there, something like that. Yeah, yeah, it was still pretty primitive when I was growing up. But yeah, Gardena didn't have this big influx, it was still a rural community. But you'd go to a dance there, they'd have the dance at the... I can't remember, the community center or whether it was the city place. But they used to have a place, Bing Hall, we'd go down there, and you'd have kids all the way from -- young ladies, okay, I don't know about the guys -- young ladies all the way from about, oh, thirteen, fourteen years old, all the way up to in their twenties. And so you'd go out there, you pick your age group and you went looking for that. Long Beach was the same way. Most of the rural communities were like that. When you had a gathering, everybody came. It was only in the city where all the teenagers all got together, just teenagers and that kind of stuff.

MN: Did the Constituents have any alliances with like the black gangs or the Latino gangs?

Mo N: Well, kind of, but the wars were between ethnic group, within ethnic groups. We didn't cross over too often. About the only times it ever did was the race wars, then everybody would get together and go after the white boys. But yeah, we were pretty tight with people that we knew. We were tight with the Los Gatos, 'cause all the central city people over on Clan Country. Thirty-second Clan Chicano gangs were kind of under the tutelage of the Baby Gestapos on the west side. But yeah, we usually didn't mix all that much because, in that fighting stuff. You know, like sometimes the Chicano gangs would be invaded from El Paso and stuff like that, they'd come in car caravans, I remember going out there and supporting the Chicano, you know, local Chicanos against those guys. And the black gangs, everybody was afraid of Watts, those are tough guys, man.

[Interruption]

MN: What did you guys do, Mo?

Mo N: Well, I think we were formed around social needs. On one hand there was a need for us to get together because everybody else had their gangs. Two, the socializing thing about getting to meet girls and stuff like that, it's always easier to do it when you're part of a group. I remember when we used to go visit the young ladies, sometimes there'd be a dozen of us all go to somebody's house, and parents didn't seem like they're bent out of shape, the girls were at home, so they're safe. And yeah, we didn't terrorize nobody or anything, you'd go there and hang out, laugh and have a good time, and get to know the young ladies. So that's the way we'd do it. I mean, and then some of us like the Big C, what we used to do sometimes, like they had the Shonien, the children's things, so we'd do fundraisers for them and stuff like that. But that's one of our big name to fame kind of stuff. If you ever interview George Nakano, he'll bring the picture out, show us presenting a check to the foundation kind of thing.

MN: It was in Crossroads, right?

Mo N: Huh?

MN: That picture's in the Crossroads, I think.

Mo N: Oh, is it? Could be.

MN: Yeah, yeah.

Mo N: Oh, Wimpy put it in there? Could be.

MN: But, you know, I always hear these fights used to break out at Nisei Week carnival, what were the fights over?

Mo N: I don't know. Probably girls or insult, talking smack. Everybody used to kind of line up around certain booths or people you had friends with, and you're just standing there looking at everybody walking by. And if you disliked somebody you talked shit to him. That's what young people do. [Laughs]

<End Segment 16> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.