Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Bill Hiroshi Shishima Interview
Narrator: Bill Hiroshi Shishima
Interviewer: Martha Nakagawa
Location: Los Angeles, California
Date: February 8, 2012
Densho ID: denshovh-sbill-01-0012

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MN: So I want to now ask you about your Boy Scout activities at Heart Mountain. You joined the Cub Scouts in Santa Anita, and then when did people start organizing the Boy Scouts at Heart Mountain?

BS: Boy Scouts I believe were started right away. And I joined the Boy Scouts in our next block because it happened to be from Maryknoll school, so I knew some of the boys over there. So I joined them, and that was, I assume it was late 1942. And then I think that winter I got pneumonia, and so I was in the hospital a few days. And then when I came out, our block started a Boy Scout troop. So my dad said, "Well, join the block troop because it's local, right there. So I joined the block troop and it happened to be from the St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Los Angeles. So that was Troop 333, I joined them, and happened to be the two leaders who lived in our block, they were members from St. Mary's church, they were the two leaders. So it was really fun. So then the next two blocks, I lived in Block 28, so they recruited in Block 29 and Block 30, two neighboring blocks, so they joined our troop. So now I got to meet new friends in the next two blocks. So that's how our Boy Scouting started in Heart Mountain there.

MN: So how many Boy Scout troops did Heart Mountain have?

BS: We had a total of seven Boy Scout troops. So it was so many that we had our so-called own district. We were the Central Wyoming Council of the Heart Mountain District. So we had seven Boy Scout troops, and we had Boy Scout competition, and then we had athletic competitions, too. By that I mean we had Boy Scout basketball league, and that was divided into two leagues, the older boys and the younger boys. Then also in softball we had two leagues for the older boys and younger boys. So we had lots of activities to keep us busy just in the Boy Scout program.

MN: Now with the sports league, which one were you involved with?

BS: Both basketball and softball.

MN: Did the Heart Mountain Boy Scouts have a drum and bugle group?

BS: Yes. Our main Boy Scout program was centered around the Koyasan Buddhist Temple people that was in numerous numbers in Heart Mountain. So they were able to get their equipment, drum and bugle equipment, sent up to Heart Mountain. So then we had a Boy Scout drum and bugle corps representing the whole camp, not just one troop. So all the Scouts were able to join the camp drum and bugle corps. And that was, I didn't join at the beginning because I'm not musical. But later on I did, but so the beginning, they were performing when a group of people come from other camp, maybe like Tule Lake, when they came, we had a reception with them, with the drum and bugle corps, or we had a reception for the Jerome members. Because Jerome camp closed early, so we had a big load come from Jerome to Heart Mountain. We had Sergeant Ben Kuroki, he was a sergeant in the Air Force, and he came to camp to recruit from the camps. So we had a reception for him. And then after a while we started having farewells to those that are leaving to the service or to other cities of the Midwest or East, so the drum and bugle performed for them also. And then we had, for Fourth of July, Armistice Day parade, we had Boy Scouts participate. I forgot what other parades, but I know Armistice Day, Fourth of July, I'm not sure what else. But they were active.

MN: Sounds like very active.

BS: Yes.

MN: Now were these, when you participated in these programs, was it also with the Girl Scouts?

BS: Sometimes Girl Scouts, especially in parades, they joined us. Then we had so-called majorettes or drum majors, they were the female one that led the drum and bugle also. But we had active Girl Scouts, too, so there's probably more Girl Scout troops. But I think they were smaller in numbers, but there is numbers of Girl Scout troops.

MN: You mentioned a Mr. Nako. Can you share with us a little bit about his background?

BS: Oh. Mr. Nako was a businessman here in Little Tokyo Los Angeles. He was a tailor and he was also the drum and bugle director of Koyasan drum and bugle corps. So we were very fortunate that when he came into Heart Mountain, they were the core and the leaders of the Boy Scout movement in Heart Mountain. But Mr. Nako, being an Issei, he was not able to be a scoutmaster. In those days, you had to be American citizen to be a scoutmaster of the Boy Scout troop. So they had younger adult leaders be scoutmaster. But he took over the drum and bugle corps, he even made a song for Heart Mountain. So we had a Heart Mountain Boy Scout song in Heart Mountain. So we always played that or sang it.

MN: Do you still remember the song?

BS: I know basically the words.

MN: Can you sort of share that with us?

BS: Okay, let's see. [Sings] "Hail to thee, the boys of the mountain, and we're striving on up the scouting trail. Though the dark and clouds of fate may challenge, victory's crowned us aware, be prepared, the scouting spirit, both [inaudible] and model to maintain. Onward forward, upward we are climbing, always for Heart Mountain BSA." I'm not sure if I got all the words correct, but it was something like that. And Mr. Nako did that, and they actually recorded that on a record, but I can't find anyone that has that right now. And I checked with Mr. Nako's son and daughter-in-law, they couldn't find anything on that.

MN: So you said you were in the drum and bugle corps later on.

BS: Yes.

MN: What did you do in there?

BS: I played the trumpet... well, the bugle, but it was piston bugle, they call it. So it had three levers. But like I say, I was poor in music, so I always had to try to memorize it.

MN: And did you borrow the Koyasan equipment and instruments?

BS: Yes, yes. They had regular classes. Regular classes, but, I mean, not school time, but other than school time.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.