<Begin Segment 15>

MN: Did you get involved in any team sports?

SO: We used to play pick up baseball, pick up football. In fact, I split my finger playing baseball. My hand went in the glove before the ball did. My father wasn't very sympathetic, you know. He called me baka for playing such a game. [Laughs]

MN: So does that mean you went to the Manzanar hospital?

SO: No, I think they had a little clinic, and they sewed my finger up there. It took several stitches, but the preparation for numbing my hand was worse than the actual stitching. It hurt more.

MN: They didn't just give you a shot of Novocain?

SO: Oh yeah, they, it was this finger here [points to right ring finger]. They stick needles in between your fingers here and try to numb the whole finger. That hurt worse than the stitching.

MN: Who stitched you up?

SO: Probably it was a nurse or something.

MN: Japanese American nurse?

SO: Yeah.

MN: Now, your father, what did your father do in camp?

SO: He worked in the carpenter shop. Now, I don't know what he did, but I know he worked in the carpenter shop.

MN: Did he take any classes in Manzanar?

SO: No, I didn't take any classes.

MN: No, your father, did he take any classes?

SO: No, I think he continued with his Japanese singing, but that's, I think... I remember he used to copy these different songs on these folded, folded pieces of paper. But I guess he was fairly educated, because he gave some books or something to the wife of a friend of mine and she was very impressed with what he was reading. [Laughs]

MN: Now, when you went to the mess hall, did you eat with your father?

SO: At the beginning, yeah, because people were strangers, right? But towards the end we'd go wherever we wanted. That's a sad part, I think, of camp, in that the family structure broke down. The parents weren't aware of where their kids were, and I guess they didn't really need to because they were in the confines of the camp. They couldn't get into any mischief, I guess, so parental control became very lax.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.