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BN: Before we get to Vietnam and the service, wanted to go back and ask you one more thing about high school. In your book, Buddhahead Trilogy, you write a lot about the gang scene in the area in high school. And I just wanted you to talk a little bit about that, what was going on there.

NN: At the time that, if you're from the Crenshaw-Seinan area, which was actually the postwar hub of the Japanese American community there, nationwide, that you were considered to be on the west side if you're from the Boyle Heights area, which was the congregation of, like, Japanese American postwar, that you're considered an east sider. So there was always friction between east side and west side, Buddhaheads, and as a result, I guess once upon a time they would be like clubs, but they turned into gangs from each area that was formed. They would oftentimes have fights and stuff at dances or parties or other community venues. And so you took pride in being from the west side or the east side.

[Interruption]

NN: Culturally, the west side, we were influenced, or a lot of our mannerisms, dress or taste and all that, was Black. And on the east side, it was more Latinx, like Sir Guy shirts and khaki pants. So there was a difference between east sider and west sider. Unfortunately, there was never anything to bring us together as being Buddhaheads. That would come later, but during that time, like gangs formed from each side of town. The difference back then, and I think it's not only with the Asians, but also straight across also with Blacks and the browns. Back then, they call it "going from the shoulders," but there was none of this kind of stuff. Every now and then maybe someone would get stabbed, and that was like, horror, but you fought. And if you would have pulled out a blade or did something like that, that was some punk shit, you don't want to be doing that. So it was almost like a samurai code, right? So growing up, it was like cooking, a lot of it was like that, representing your neighborhood.

BN: And then I didn't ask you about sports as much. What was your sport in particular, or did you play multiple...

NN: You know, we grew up with JA Leagues, and so I guess my older brother Patrick, he was part of the first group when all the Niseis got together and started to form these teams so their kids could play organized ball. Because I think at that time, high schools and all that, I guess we were considered too small to play at the high school level, so they still wanted us to have an opportunity to participate in sports and do sportsmanship and team camaraderie, for all the good reasons, so they started at the JA leagues. So I kind of got into it in junior high school, and I played on Tiger Organization, and I played basketball in the winter, and then we had baseball, JA baseball in the summer. So kind of takes up your whole year, and you're with a group of teammates, becoming lifetime friends kind of thing. It wasn't me, but it was I mean, throughout our community.

BN: Did you play in high school?

NN: I played in the lower division in high school, because they went by exponents like weight and height. I was kind of a flyweight, so I had B components, but I could have tried out for varsity or whatever. But I think back then, for the lower divisions, classifications like our school, Dorsey, which there was a lot of Buddhaheads playing in the lower divisions like B football and B basketball, this kind of stuff, B track, that basically we did exceptionally well, kind of like, in a way, southern league, which at that time was like all the inner city schools, meaning all the Black schools.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.