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MN: So what was your first impression of Granada?

Mo N: No impression. As I was told, we just got off the train, lined up and we were put on trucks and then we went straight up into the camp.

MN: And which block did you live in?

Mo N: 11-K.

MN: So there's this story you shared about being called the "11-K Obakes." Why were you called that?

Mo N: Well, I think that was the name put on us by a very famous man in our camp, his name was Mitsuru Konki. I don't know if that's his real name. And the story about him is that he was a real brilliant young man, and he had an accident and got hit by a car and did something to his brain. And so he was like a, kind of like a kid. And he used to ride around camp on a bicycle, and all of us used to fuck with him. And so yeah, I hope we didn't do it, but we may have thrown shit at him, teased him and did all kinds of stuff. So that's why he called us the 11-K Obake. Yeah, he was Mitsuru Konki. Then I heard, after the war, I think it was in Chicago or something like that, he got killed by being hit by a car on his bicycle. Yeah, what a tragedy, tragic stories of camp. Yeah, he gave us that name, 11-K Obakes. People messing with him all the time.

MN: Now you and your friends had another name, you were the Three Musketeers?

Mo N: Yeah, we fashioned ourselves as the Three Musketeers, and the block people kind of took to that, too. And the reason why we liked that name, in those days, the Three Musketeer candy bar was unique because it had three pieces rather than two pieces in it. So the three of us would never have to fight over who got more, who got less, everyone got one piece. So whenever we could shake up the scratch, we would go and buy that Three Musketeer candy bar. We just had a reunion a couple, about a month ago. Seventy-five year old jiisans getting together talking about their kid days. [Laughs]

MN: So did you and your friends sneak out of camp?

Mo N: Yeah, yeah. We were always sneaking out of camp. Well, I guess probably when I think back, it had to probably be after they took the guards down from the tower, because I heard stories about people getting shot. At first when we got there, talking about some guy, old guy went up there and just touched the fence, and they just shot him without warning. And of course the story, telling by older kids, young kids used to go to the firing range. They had an army company that was supposed to, garrison to supposedly watch over us, and they had a firing range. So kids used to go there and dig up the bullets to use to make arrowheads and stuff like that. So we used to go there and dig those up. And one time we were digging and they said, "They're coming," they told us, "get the hell out of there, they're gonna start shooting." So we got out of there, but apparently there was one guy who didn't hear or didn't give a shit, smoking back there, and he got shot and killed. I've talked to people about that who may have, who were older, and they don't recall that, so I don't know. But I distinctly remember that, that's a distinct part of my memory about camp.

MN: This firing range, was it just right outside of camp or was it inside camp?

Mo N: Yeah, so many of us used to go there, so it'd have to be inside, that's what I think. Inside meaning that it was a part of the camp setup where you had the soldiers that were stationed to look after us, and they were part of the compound, impoundment area. So the shooting range was right by them. So... 'cause I don't remember us having to sneak through fences to go there. Might have, though. Just becomes a regular thing to go out there. But, yeah... the people that are supposed to be doing, out of University of Colorado that are doing that research on Amache, they didn't even know there were soldiers that were stationed there. Shit, every camp had a company of soldiers there at least.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.