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KN: And so you're growing up, and how old were you when your father was actually taken away that you mentioned?

MY: I think I was about three years old. So my memories of the camp is just spotty. Nothing heavy.

KN: So you remember your father leaving, then you and your family then reuniting with him in Crystal City, Texas.

MY: Uh-huh.

KN: And you were maybe about three or four. And although you say you have spotty memories, as a child, what do you remember from Crystal City, where you then make a voyage to camp itself.

MY: Well, actually in camp I remember, I could clearly see the barbed wire, you know, the fence, the high fence, and the mounted police behind the fence. But I didn't think we were inside a prison. And there was an incident about an armadillo that got into the village, I mean, the camp. And how everybody chased it down, and the men caught it and took it to the taxidermist.

KN: How big was the armadillo? I mean, you've never seen...

MY: Well, at that time, it seemed huge, yeah. I really don't know... not like a monster. I thought it was interesting and fun. And the other one was, traumatic incident that I told my wife was where they had a, so-called swimming pool, community pool, and they were cleaning that area because a lot of, what do you call that, moss, whatever. And I stepped into the pool and I just started sliding down toward the drain, and to this day it's a mental scar. The drain was huge and I felt like I was just going into an endless pit, 'til somebody, a hand grabbed me and saved me from that huge drain. It probably was a small drain, but in my mind...

KN: So the pool, was it just dug out or was it lined?

MY: It was lined, concrete pool, round. And I guess the community used it a lot, so it was fun to go there.

KN: So were there a lot of other children there? So you were with a number of your sisters. Do you folks remember playing with other children, or was it just you and your sisters?

MY: No, no, other children. So there was a roped area for the shallow where the younger children played. I don't think I knew how to swim then.

KN: Do you remember how... where did you live and what were the living accommodations? I mean, would you have to share a room with your siblings, your sisters, was it one large room? Do you remember any of that?

MY: It was, felt like it was a one-bedroom unit, of course, small. And even on Kauai we had a two bedroom house, and with six siblings we'd sleep in the living room and we had a futon in the living room and the bedroom. But you don't think anything about it when you're growing up. Everything is fun.

KN: And what language did your parents actually speak or teach you folks?

MY: Oh, yeah. My parents spoke Japanese mainly. And no English. So that's why I told my wife I was a kindergarten dropout because I didn't speak any English. So when I went to Kapaa Elementary School, kindergarten, and the teacher told the other kids to have Manuel join them in the Cowboy and Indians game, you know, everybody shooting up a storm. And they said they heard a funny-sounding gun.

KN: Do you know what it sounded like? Do you remember?

MY: I don't remember.

KN: You don't want to remember. [Laughs]

MY: But they all stopped playing to listen where the sound came from. And it was my gun that sounded so different. So they started laughing and started teasing me. The next day I refused to go to school, and for the next couple of weeks I didn't go to school, and I was a kindergarten dropout. And my dad, being a strict... you know, Japanese-style, you got to go to school, used to give me dirty lickings.

KN: "Rubber slipper discipline."

MY: Oh, yeah, whatever. Hand, whatever. But anyway, I refused to go to school. And interesting, later on I met my buddy who told me that story also. So I told him, "So you're the one that caused me to drop out of school."

KN: Mental trauma.

MY: Mental trauma, it's a mental scar.

KN: But he still remembers that incident, too.

MY: Yeah.

KN: Decades later.

MY: Yeah, but anyway, so the following year I did go to first grade, so kept on line.

KN: So camp was okay for you folks.

MY: Camp, right. You only remember good things. And plus, my parents were always positive. Even after, they don't talk about the hard times in camp, or about losing his business and why did this happen, he was always positive, always sense of humor. Kind of joke around. And like he said, yokatta, blessing in disguise. When he got his citizenship -- when I was in seventh grade, I still remember the photo they took with the American flag and all that, and they studied really, really hard to know the Bill of Rights and all these things that I don't know. But they did pass the exam, so we became naturalized, yeah.

KN: So I'm imagining your experiences in the camp, and there's a lot of good times.

MY: Lot of good times.

KN: And in the meantime, you're having other siblings being born. So your family is slowly increasing even in the camp.

MY: Right, right.

<End Segment 3> - Copyright &copy; 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.