<Begin Segment 15>

GK: Okay, Dad, would you like to share what, some of the products made from Manzanar guayule rubber? I'll just hand some of these to you.

AK: I guess it's been over ten years, huh?

GK: This was made, look at, look at the date on there. This was made after the war.

AK: After the war, I see. Feel the rubber. Still good.

TI: Go ahead and, can you actually hold it up for the camera?

GK: Yeah, so hold it up to the camera and just show how, how strong it... And this was made in what year? Okay, this sample was made in March of 1966, so this was after Manzanar, but guayule rubber was still being used to make rubber. This is a, what is this device? What is this device?

AK: This is an udder, udder... for the cow.

GK: So it's hooked up to a milking machine. And the quality of this rubber is also still very good.

AK: Yeah, it's very... forty or fifty years and still...

GK: Yeah, doesn't show any cracking or any sign of aging. Then this is a product that was made in Manzanar [hands it to AK].

TI: Can you hold it up?

AK: This stopper?

GK: This sink stopper.

AK: Sink stopper.

GK: See? No cracking, still --

AK: Still firm.

GK: And this is another product made by the Rose Tire Company in Los Angeles [hands it to AK], but this is made from guayule rubber at Manzanar.

AK: Still no cracks, still firm.

GK: One of the important points to be made is that, if they wanted to make high quality rubber that lasted, they could do it.

KK: Yeah, they could if they wanted to.

GK: If they, if a company wanted to make high quality rubber, if they wanted to make tires that lasted longer, they could do it.

KK: Yes.

GK: The problem, the problem is companies make more money if they make things that don't last so long. It's one of the unfortunate things, the concept of built in obsolescence is, really prevails over the quality that is achievable. And that applies to just about every single product, and the downside of all that is that we end up with tire pollution, and everything that, all of our, most of our solid waste pollution is a result of built-in obsolescence. We make things that only last a short time, and then we can't get rid of it. We have plastic islands floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. So, anyway.

MN: Were you able to get that it was made in Manzanar?

TI: Would you hold it up again for a bit?

MN: Could you hold this? 'Cause it says "made in Manzanar."

GK: This one was made in Manzanar, so this one is, let's see...

KK: Sixty-something.

GK: Yeah, over sixty years, almost seventy years old.

KK: Yeah, almost seventy years old.

GK: I don't know if you can read that.

TI: A little hard to read.

MN: Alright. Okay. Thank you.

AK: Rubber nowadays, it cracks.

GK: Yeah.

MN: Yeah, I know.

AK: And this one doesn't. So nice, firm.

GK: Now, one of the reasons why it's still in good condition is because I keep it in plastic, enclosed in plastic, okay, so it doesn't get oxidized as quickly, or it doesn't get exposed to sunlight. It's sunlight that causes a lot of the wear and tear on rubber, so this would actually get, this would be affected by sunlight as well.

MN: So it has nothing to do with the fiber content?

GK: No, it does. This, the low fiber content of the guayule rubber made in Manzanar is what gives it its tensile strength and why it lasts so much longer. Remember space shuttle had a sealant problem? It's possible that if they made the seals out of Manzanar rubber, then they would've withstood the freezing. It wouldn't have been, they wouldn't have, we wouldn't have had a space shuttle disaster. But that's just my opinion.

MN: A possibility, yeah.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.