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LH: So what was the Japanese American community like? I mean, what do you remember of it at that time?

FF: Oh, it was very ethnic, in that the Japanese community was real tight. I think that's the only way they survived. The athletic program, Courier League, the double AA, B, C, basketball leagues and softball. And I think that whole community kind of rallied around the athletic program, and I think I picked up on that. I like to think that with my, looking up to my brother Daibo, and Seibo, and Joe who were all good athletes, that it helped me to set some kind of unconscious goal to excel. And that part, I think, came later, when I, you know, after we left Seattle and went into internment camp, and to be with the real athletic-oriented California community. And I think being in Tule Lake, California, really brought the best out of me in terms of my athletic, athleticism, if you're gonna call it that. But I was real lucky that there were people to play ball with, and my brothers to showcase me as an athlete supposedly at that age, by that time I was twelve years old. And I really loved the outdoors. Well, I had to play basketball outdoors, and sports, football, basketball, baseball.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.