Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Fred Matsumura Interview
Narrator: Fred Matsumura
Interviewers: Tom Ikeda (primary), Beverly Kashino (secondary)
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Date: July 2, 1998
Densho ID: denshovh-mfred-01-0011

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TI: You mentioned Kash. What was he like -- and the reason I ask is, we're from Seattle and Kash was from Seattle. But what was Shiro like?

FM: The Hawaii group were there about a week before the mainland group arrive. And when Kash and Hayashi came in, they came in together, you see. And there's two empty bunks on the far end of the hut, so they took those two hut there. And we look at Kash and Hayashi. You know, they're big guys, compared to us. Said, "Oh boy, look at these big guys come in here." And well, we got along real good. Yeah, no friction among us. And Kash, I tell you he's big, but he's got a personality. You know, he's always smiling. He never get mad. We always tease him, "Hey, Kash, how come you're so quiet?" He says, "Hey, I don't want to get a licking." [Laughs] Says, "What are you talkin' about? We the ones gonna get a licking from you." [Laughs]

TI: Was Kash sorta extraordinarily big? People have all said that he was very big compared to the others.

FM: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, to me, he's about a foot taller than I am, I think. But he's a real gentle guy, good guy, yeah. We got along real good. In fact, all of us in the squad, the first squad, which Kash was one of the members there, really got along real good.

BK: So there were about four mainlanders, and the remainder were from the islands?

FM: From Hawaii, yeah. Uh-huh. And we had one cadre that was from the mainland, also. He stayed, he was in the hut there.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.