<Begin Segment 22>

MN: Now, you were really instrumental in getting the Manzanar camp diorama, or the replica that's displayed at the Manzanar Historic Site put together, but this project almost didn't happen. Can you share with us, like, how this idea came about and what the process was?

SO: Well, the committee said one thing missing up in Manzanar is a model of the camp, and Bruce Kaji says, "Oh, we've got one at the museum," Japanese National Museum, so a group of us went up and looked at it, and he says, "Yeah, this'll probably be nice for the camp." So we found out Bruce knew who built it, guy named Hasuike. Well, Hasuike got a group of people together to build one at, at the museum, so we said, well, let's see if he'll make it. So we contacted him and he says, "Well, you guys can use my shop and you guys put it together." He says, "Whatever molds I have for the buildings and stuff," he'll let us use. Well, in the interim he died, so that created a dilemma. I says, "What are we gonna do?" Somebody suggested, "Why don't we build it?" I says, yeah, but who's gonna do it? So I said, "Well, I do a little woodworking. I can make the buildings, but they're not gonna be plastic and as intricate and detailed as the one at the museum." So they said okay, so I started building the little models, the little buildings, and I made a sample board of a block and they all seemed happy with it. Then Archie Miyatake says, "Well, I'll paint 'em." So he and I... I made the buildings and he painted the barracks. So then I got a cabinetmaker -- he'd just so happened to remodel my kitchen -- and I asked him to make platforms for me, so he said okay, so I thought we were gonna pay him but he ended up donating the thing. Then we got the committee together, but in the meantime Archie and I had made all the buildings and we got the committee started maybe in February. And I broke some branches off of the heavenly bamboo; that provided us with the trunk of the trees, and we got some moss and stuff and made trees out of -- anyway, we put it all together. There were about thirteen of us on the committee at the time, so we finished it in time for the dedication of the auditorium, the interpretive center.

MN: Did everybody work out of your garage? That's a lot of people to be working.

SO: No, my brother-in-law, he donated a little building, the space for us to work in that he wasn't using. So we all went and -- this was in Harbor City -- my brother-in-law had a trailer, boat trailer repair shop, so we commandeered part of his buildings to put the model together.

MN: So in total, how many months did it take from the time you started on your own to when the committee came to finish it?

SO: Archie and I started in November, and I think, wasn't the interpretive center dedicated in March?

MN: April, they had the big shindig in April at the pilgrimage. That was when they, it was huge crowds of people, in April. I think it was 2005, I want to say.

SO: Anyway, we finished it in time for the dedication, and then a few of us went up and put, put the model together.

MN: Now, that's a pretty big model that I see in the interpretive center. Did you have to bring it in parts?

SO: Yeah, we created, we made it in sections, and it was so divided that where the panels joined together happened to be the street that went around the blocks. So they're little odd-sized shapes, but that, that's what predicated the size of the platform. But it turned out the scale of the model is about four hundred to one, but the buildings are out of scale. They had to be bigger, otherwise they would've been real tiny little things, so we made 'em bigger. And the scale up at the museum is really out of whack, but you wouldn't know it.

MN: Is this where your engineering background comes in?

SO: Maybe. I like to fiddle around with wood anyway, so...

MN: Where did you get the measurements for the scales?

SO: They had a map in one of the Park Service pamphlets, so that's where we got the scale.

MN: You also donated your artwork for the cover of the Manzanar High School program. How did that start?

SO: [Laughs] Well, that started, we used to get covers from Union Bank and they were the same covers that they produced every year, but then the austerity program came about and Union Bank said they would no longer donate it. So we had to have some kind of a cover, so that's when I just threw in my sumi-e drawing.

MN: When did you start your sumi-e drawing?

SO: Well, it's probably been about twenty, twenty-five years now. The way that came about was the teachers had a spat. They broke up, and at the time I was taking bonsai, where -- you know, bonsai club -- and one of the members there said, "Hey, Sam, we need students. Why don't you come?" I said okay, so I had always wanted to take some kind of art. That's how I got started.

MN: Okay, I've asked all me questions that I want to ask you. Is there anything else you want to add?

SO: No, nothing that I can think of. Not off the top of my head, anyway.

MN: You're still active with the committee?

SO: I, for the last two years I only provided the pamphlet, the brochure. But this year we formed a new committee and, you know Rosie Kakuchi, she included my name, so I guess I'm drafted.

MN: And now you're not just the Class of '44, is it? It's like all Manzanar, isn't it?

SO: Yeah. It started out the Class of '44, then we added the Class of '43, '44, then we added the Class '43, '44, '45. So actually those were the three classes that graduated in Manzanar, so then they decided, being that a lot of the '43, '44, '45 members have passed away, we thought we'd keep the reunion going by adding all classes, so it eventually turned into Manzanar School reunion, so K through 12. Actually, it's K through 12, relatives, and anybody else who wants to participate, but we don't want to call it an all camp reunion, otherwise it would probably become unmanageable.

MN: Okay, thank you, Sam.

SO: You're welcome.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.