<Begin Segment 11>

MN: Now, on your free time, did you, were you able to pick up a hobby?

AK: Well, I'd sneak out to go fishing.

MN: Share about that story. How, where did you go sneak out of camp, from where?

AK: We waited 'til it was dark, before the sun came up. And then there wasn't any, easy to, there was a searchlight going this way, we'd just go underneath the light and they can't see. So after we got so many, a hundred fifty feet or so, we'd start running, in case they saw me and they were coming after me. [Laughs] You know, part of that, I used to take care of their garden, I wrote to them, and I think they're the one that sent me the fish hooks and line and things like that. So I used to sneak out and catch some fish, and wait 'til dark to come in again. I got caught once and I think I spent about three days in jail, and everybody in camp heard about it. They'd come to the window and laugh at me.

MN: But you got caught sneaking back in, fishing, also?

AK: Yeah.

[Interruption]

MN: Can you share about the time you caught, you caught like a hundred trout?

AK: Yeah. I don't think, I don't know how many, but I got a lot of trouts and I shared it with our neighbor. They were all small, not big.

MN: Did you take it into the mess hall?

AK: No. They just cooked it in their own place.

MN: How were you able to bring so much trout back to camp?

AK: They were small trout, so I guess... I don't know if there was any limit of size, but the fish that I got, I brought it back in. Had a feast.

MN: Now, how were you able to catch so many?

AK: Well gee, nobody else is fishing, and people -- there's Lone Pine and Independence, we were right in between -- they used to go fishing in the stream, but they were afraid of us and none of 'em came. So we got to fish wherever we want to.

MN: So when you caught a lot of this trout this one time, did you block up the river?

AK: No. I just blocked it a little bit so that, here and there. There wasn't that many fish, so if they were any swimming, there's a big rock there, well, I put another rock there so that the fish could hide in there. When they get in the middle, I just grab it.

MN: So the next day, did a lot of other people try to go out and catch that many fish?

AK: Yeah, I don't know when, but some of the others tried, but not very many. They were scared to go out there.

MN: Who did you usually go out to fish with?

AK: Fellow named Ken Miyamoto.

<End Segment 11> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.