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AM: And we've had some, I went to one or two reunions. In fact, Santa Monica High gave, was one of the first schools to award diplomas to us, so many umpteen years later. And that principal in '42 managed to get the diplomas to those Niseis who were eligible to graduate, but he became ill and he couldn't do it for the class of '43 and '44. And somebody found out about that, so they gathered up the names of the students and awarded us, they had a small graduation exercise for us, especially for us.
SY: And that was recently, or relatively recently?
AM: Maybe seven to ten years ago. In fact, my brother, Brian, he filmed that scene, and it's in his Music Man of Manzanar.
SY: When you mentioned, since you mentioned that, what is the, what is your brother's Music Man of Manzanar? Can you describe it?
AM: Well, I had a music and drama class instructor in Manzanar. His name is Louis Frizzell. And I managed to land a part in "Growing Pains." I played the part of Professor McIntyre, and then I got to play in the chorus when he produced a Loud and Clear musical. Well, he remembered me, because about, '44, about twenty-seven years later, when my brother met him on a movie set, they overheard each other talking about Manzanar and Mr. Frizzell went to my brother and asked him what his name is. And Brian said, "Brian." Said, "Yeah, yeah, but what's your last name?" He said, "Maeda." And Lou Frizzell said, "Are you related to Arnold Maeda?" And my brother says, "That's my brother." [Laughs] Well, when I first heard about it I was shocked. He remembered me, all those years later? 'Cause he became an actor, and... I forgot your basic question for why I brought this up.
SY: I was asking about Music Man of Manzanar.
AM: And they talked about the fact that it would be nice if he could produce something about Manzanar, and so he always had that in his mind, Brian did. So not too long ago he made a documentary. And I wondered how he was gonna do it because Lou Frizzell was gone, and, but I thought he did a fairly good job. The only part I didn't care for was, he put me in there too much. Said, "You're supposed to be shooting Lou Frizzell, something about him," but I didn't know he was gonna put me in the documentary.
SY: Well, he interviewed you for it, then. So you, did you tell stories about Lou Frizzell?
AM: No. Bruce Kaji, the founding father of the museum, he's in there, and he spoke quite a bit about him. But to me, he just occasionally would point the camera at me, and he didn't tell me anything, so it's a good thing because otherwise I would've choked. [Laughs]
SY: So, but you, there were probably few people who actually remembered, or not remembered, but worked with Lou Frizzell in camp.
AM: Yeah.
SY: And you were among --
AM: Well, he had Rosie Maruki Kakuuchi say something, and Bruce did most of the talking. And he had a mixture of things in there.
SY: So I, it's interesting that you were active -- actually, we should maybe back up a little and then we'll talk more about Lou Frizzell, 'cause I think that he's, he's got quite a big name now because of your brother's documentary. But can we back up a little to after your parents found out about camp and then you ended up selling everything, where you end, where you went next. Did you spend time in an assembly center? Do you remember if you went to an assembly center once you got rid of all your things, once you boarded from that spot in Venice?
AM: Yeah, well, but back, backtracking, he did manage to leave his stake truck with our neighbor at the nursery.
SY: What kind of truck?
AM: Well, I call it a stake truck. It has some wooden beams on the back of the truck.
SY: Kind of open.
AM: Open. Because when we were told that we could return to L.A. he came back, retrieved the truck, and helped many people move back to L.A. But I'm sorry, I took the subject away from --
SY: No, that's good. I am glad you remembered that.
<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.