<Begin Segment 14>

[This transcript has been extensively edited by the narrator.]

SY: So in camp, then, by the time you got to camp and you were able to entertain yourselves?

GN: Well, anyway, he saw these (boxes which were possible) chairs. And so early in the morning, as we were going over there towards the washroom to get these (boxes), we met Ralph Lazo. He was the only Mexican American that came to camp. In fact, I have a picture of Ralph and I have the (little passport) booklet that Ralph wrote about his time in camp. I made the first passport as a test case, I made one for myself, and by that time my brother had passed away. I made one posthumously for my brother. (Manzanar uses them) in the educational program all over the U.S. and I (have) received hundreds of letters from kids all over. When I (had an art) show here in Whittier, kids came from Downey and all these different high schools. They wanted to meet me in person.

SY: So you remember that meeting with Ralph?

GN: So anyway, I asked Ralph, "You didn't have to come. You're not Japanese, so why did you come?" So he said, "Well, it's like this." He said, "My best friends were all Japanese and I was helping them move." And I think it was Yosh Shibuya's (family) that he was helping move (because of the evacuation order). (Yosh Shibuya) was in the jazz band that Gordon Sato was in and (also) Bruce Kaji, (the founder of JANM).

SY: Jive Bombers.

GN: Jive Bombers. In fact, I have this book on the Jive Bombers, I'm going to show you also afterwards a book that (Bruce Kaji) wrote, (another book) about Gordon that just came out this year. It's a beautiful children's book about (Gordon Sato's) work in Eritrea. Well, anyway, (Sato) said, "I was so upset, when this man came and bought a brand-new lawnmower, I was helping (Ralph) take the lawnmower to the car and he said, 'Heh, heh, heh, I got this for pennies from those old Japs.'" I never use that word because it enrages me when I hear it, but that's what that guy said. And he said it made Ralph so angry that someone was gloating over somebody else's ill fortune that he decided then and there, "Nobody's standing up for my friends. I'm going to go with them to (Manzanar)," kind of like a protest. And so I said, "How did your parents feel about it?" "Well, it's like this," he said. "My mother had died, and just my father and me and my two older sisters," they were much older than (I). And he said, "Dad, I'm getting to be a teenager and I'd be a lot safer. I'll be locked up. And I'm going to be with good people and they'll take care of me and feed me and you won't have to worry about me running around late at nighttime getting in trouble or anything like that." But he wouldn't have been that kind of person to get in that kind of trouble at all. Because later on I found out from our PTA president, (Lennie Medina), when I was teaching, I gave her some tickets to the Japanese American National Museum and she and her husband went. And she said, "Grace, I went there and I saw a picture of Ralph Lazo." I said, "Do you know Ralph Lazo?" "Yes," she said, "I had a crush on him." And she said, "We were in junior high school, he was student body president of the junior high school, so I was just waiting until I would be old enough so I could go to Manual Arts to see him again. And when I got to Manual Arts, he wasn't there anymore. They said he moved." And she said, "He moved to Manzanar." So that's how I know that story about Ralph Lazo. But anyway, we remained friends with Ralph. And (Lennie Medina) just passed away; I just got a beautiful letter from her two sons just recently.

SY: Did you live in close proximity to Ralph during camp?

GN: (Yes, he lived in the Bachelor's barrack next door in Block 19).

SY: After camp you became friends.

GN: No, I became friends with him in camp. We were both in high school. (Ralph lived with the bachelors and) my friend (Haru) Ogi lived on the other side of the (Bachelor) barrack. She was my maid of honor at my wedding, I was going to show you that picture. So we were all friends. The high school wasn't that big.

SY: Did he live with another Japanese family?

GN: No, he lived in the bachelors' quarters the whole time. The whole time he was there he just lived in the bachelors' quarters. [Laughs]

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.