Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Frank S. Fujii Interview
Narrator: Frank S. Fujii
Interviewers: Larry Hashima (primary), Beth Kawahara (secondary)
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: September 3 and 5, 1997
Densho ID: denshovh-ffrank-01-0017

<Begin Segment 17>

LH: So they actually did organize teams in the camp based on where they were from?

FF: Yes, yes. The Northwest team had a later on... at the beginning, the assimilation of the camp wasn't operating except for California -- they seemed to know who to hang out with. The Northwest people sort of hung out with each other, but then as the first year, second year passed -- third year then, like my brother started to play for a California team. They started to find out who the good players are and Daibo, who is right above me, he played for a California hotshot team. And I was real proud of him because he made the team called the Okole House Gang. And that's California hotshots who I used to look up to because they were so good, and when my brother made that team, I said, "How come they got you?" And he was proud and I was proud. And so then later I assimilated into the, I would say Green Waves, but it wasn't, it was the Waves, it's called Waves, I think. And I played with the guys a little bit older than me and made... they made sort of a hotshot all-star team to be invincible, but we got beat. But the point was to be chosen. You know, it does a person a lot of good to have that self-esteem, or to raise your ego a little bit and make you better. And I think to me, I was looking forward to wanting to do better and wanting to excel, and I wanted that part of my life to be part of me always, not realizing that I would end up somehow being a coach.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.