Densho Digital Archive
Friends of Manzanar Collection
Title: Akira Kageyama Interview
Narrator: Akira Kageyama
Interviewer: Martha Nakagawa
Location: Lomita, California
Date: May 5, 2012
Densho ID: denshovh-kakira-01-0004

<Begin Segment 4>

MN: Now, when you were growing up, did you get involved in any sports activities?

AK: Yeah, mostly baseball, sandlot baseball -- softball, I mean -- and football too. There's a group of us would get together and we'd play some other gang.

MN: Was your team all Japanese Americans?

AK: Yeah, all of 'em.

MN: And what, where did you usually play at?

AK: Some parking lot or wherever. A lot of times during the day all the cars gone 'cause they all went to work, so a lot of space, that's the time we picked and practice and play. And sometimes when we're playing another game, we'd challenge each other and we would go to school, back and then play.

MN: When you were growing up and you were on the baseball team, did you play against the Olivers?

AK: Let's see, I don't remember. I think I was past that age when they were playing together.

MN: How about the beach? Did your parents take you down to the beach?

AK: Yeah, we used to go to the beach quite a bit.

MN: Which one did you go to?

AK: I don't know the name of the... I think one of 'em was called Sunset Beach, if it's still there or not.

MN: How about, like, Brighton Beach or White Point?

AK: Yeah, yeah, those two, White Point they all had that picnic like thing, that my mother used to perform.

MN: Now, your son shared about the time that you almost drowned in the L.A. River. Can you share with us that story?

AK: Yeah, we were in, we had a big dory, great big dory, and we pushed it down -- the L.A. River was pretty full when it was flowing -- so we pushed that dory to the river and then, and two other friends that, three of us got on and we were, I remember that it was like a lake then. And I fell, and I still remember, when I fell, I still remember seeing something in the water. Still comes to me. And then they pulled me up, and we didn't want to tell our parents 'cause they'd give us heck, so we burned a, started a fire and then we, it just dried us off, and then we came home. They didn't want me to go anywhere near the river.

MN: Your son was also talking about how you used to play at the Evergreen Cemetery.

AK: Yeah, hide and go seek over there. [Laughs] That's right.

[Interruption]

MN: Now, we were talking about how you used to play at the Evergreen Cemetery. Did you ever get in trouble?

AK: No. Maybe we did, I don't remember. But we just played hide and go seek behind the tombstones and were running around, but I don't think we got any trouble. We didn't do any damage. We were just hiding behind the stones.

MN: Weren't you scared, playing in a cemetery?

AK: I don't know anything about that. [Laughs] I was a little kid then.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.