<Begin Segment 29>

SY: So yeah, so when did you, then, finally end up retiring?

YY: I retired in 1982. I figured that I could get seventy-five, no eighty-five percent, I can get eighty-five percent of my salary.

SY: And you had worked for the county for how long?

YY: I got credit for thirty-six years. And I thought, well, no sense working for fifteen percent, so I retired. [Laughs]

SY: And so what are you, what have been your main interests since you retired?

YY: Well, I think golf was the main thing. I was a member of (Topflite) Club for fifty years, over fifty years.

SY: Fifty years, so when did you start that? I mean, what was the...

YY: I started playing in '57.

SY: So it was after the war, and all Japanese American?

YY: Uh-huh.

SY: And you all kind of knew each other, or how did that happen?

YY: Well, you start playing golf, and then you wanted to be able to play different courses, so you join the club. So then I became officer in the Nisei, Southern California Nisei Golf Association, and when I was treasurer, let's see, we had fourteen hundred, over fourteen hundred members and about thirty-seven clubs that belonged to the association.

SY: That's a lot of golfers, fourteen hundred.

YY: Yeah.

SY: And what kind of things did that association do?

YY: Well, we were able to get their, keep their handicaps going, and we had monthly, I think, yeah, we had monthly tournaments.

SY: Monthly tournaments for all the members?

YY: Well, it's not all. Nobody, a lot of people have their own tournaments, different clubs, but we'd get at least a hundred, over a hundred people playing in the tournaments.

SY: And did they, so the association just had a yearly dues and then you could play in the tournament?

YY: Right, but you have to pay for the tournament, though. [Laughs]

SY: And then you have to, and did you raise money for anything? Were you...

YY: No, because we just had enough money to pay for the tournament prizes and things like that.

SY: So this has kept you in touch with the Japanese American community.

YY: Right.

SY: So the members that, when you first started, were they all people who were in camp? I mean, most of the people were...

YY: Yeah, most of the people in camp.

SY: So you really had a lot of friends who...

YY: Yeah, I knew a lot of people.

SY: From different camps, though, not just Manzanar.

YY: Yeah.

SY: Did you stay in touch with people from Manzanar?

YY: Not very many.

SY: And why is that?

YY: I don't know. 'Cause I, well, most of, I knew most of the Terminal Island people 'cause they had their own group, and they had their tournaments and I used to go to those.

SY: So you're closest to the Terminal Island people. And then how about the Boyle Heights people? Were you, did they have...

YY: They were all scattered. But I kept track with a few of the Boyle Heights people, but...

SY: So when you guys all played golf or get together, do you talk about camp? Do people have --

YY: No.

SY: Nothing?

YY: Nobody.

SY: Nobody ever talks about it.

YY: No.

SY: Why do you think that is?

YY: I don't know. I don't talk about it because I don't feel that it did me any good and no sense talking about it, you know? So I don't talk about it. I don't think my kids ever asked me any questions about it, so I never told 'em. I don't think they know what happened in camp.

<End Segment 29> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.