<Begin Segment 5>

MN: Now, did your parents enroll you in kendo or judo?

MO: We took judo, and I didn't like it because I wasn't very strong. And it seemed like for a year all I did was practice landing on my back. It seems that's where it was. I didn't like it. And then when we went to Manzanar, I took kendo, which I liked because you could hit people with a stick. It was fun.

MN: So when you went to Manzanar, did they make the stick or they brought those in?

MO: They brought those in because they were, they were made of bamboo and they looked like they came from Japan. Because you had kendo organizations here in Little Tokyo, and we had the Buddhist church there. I think the Nishi Hongwanji was there, and they had programs. And then we had the Maryknoll brothers, which was just down the street from here, or no, maybe across the street. Wherever it was, it was in this general neighborhood. And they had a church there. So you had the Catholic church presence, and I'm not sure of the Protestant church, because we avoided going to those places. We didn't have to go, we didn't go.

MN: Let me go back to your prewar years and ask you a little bit more about judo. Who was your judo sensei?

MO: Seigo Murakami. He was honored later on by the emperor of Japan, he was, I think a tenth degree in black belt. His sons were my age, and when he stopped, they did it, and now their sons are running the same dojo in San Fernando. But they were in North Hollywood, and there was one in San Fernando as well. And then following our return, we had a community center in Arleta or Pacoima, and they conduct judo lessons there. but I never took judo lessons there.

MN: Well, you know, before the war, usually the judo dojos were next to the Japanese school. But where was your judo...

MO: No, no, it was right in the Japanese school. We'd just unroll the mats, that's why it was so dusty. It would make me sneeze. Maybe I had a, probably had some kind of an allergy at the time. Back in those days, we didn't know what that word meant.

MN: So when you were taking judo, did you go to different dojos to compete?

MO: I tried to avoid that because I was so bad at it.

MN: How long did you take judo?

MO: Less than a year. Persuaded my father that it was not good for me to do that.

MN: Let me ask you about the Japanese movies. Like before the war, did your parents take you to see Japanese movies?

MO: You mean here in town, in Little Tokyo?

MN: Here in town or over there in San Fernando Valley?

MO: I don't recall going to Japanese movie in Little Tokyo. We might have, but I don't recall. Every so often on Saturdays at Nihongakkou they would have movies. And so people in the community would come, and it was part of the... I guess, a social gathering. It was always fun, nigiyaka, that's what it was. And I think -- and I'd see my little friends and we'd romp around, and all the mats were rolled up, we'd jump up on the mats and you know, we're kids.

MN: Did you understand the movie that was being shown?

MO: No. But we loved those chanbara movies, even if we didn't understand it. And I would ask my father, "How come we don't understand it?" See, we didn't understand Japanese that well. But he would, I remember him saying, "It's Osaka dialect." And apparently it's a different dialect than some other places. I'm not too familiar with Japanese dialect. All I know is that Hiroshima dialect is very countrified, and if you use Hiroshima dialect in Japan, people will kind of look at you somewhat askance. But it's not as bad as the people from the shady side. So I met a person from some prefecture over there, Tottori Prefecture, Tottori ken. And his Japanese was really different. Not that I understand Japanese that well.

MN: Of course, they always make fun of Kagoshima, too. That's like a whole different language, I understand.

MO: Each... these enclaves throughout the country, they didn't have any correspondence with one another for centuries, they had no written language. So, yeah.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.