<Begin Segment 5>

MM: Well I know Charlie and I took... after we were married, took a long trip to Japan, over a month, and this is how I learned about Japan and how things go. But you know something, they were nice to us, they were.

DC: In Japan?

MM: Uh-huh.

DC: Where did you go on your trip?

MM: Oh, we went a lot of places.

CM: We had a one-month trip there, highlight of Japan, major cities, scenic places, and ate the finest of the Japanese food over there, so we had a great time.

MM: Going to this restaurant, we didn't know how --

CM: The only thing I had trouble is I do not drink, and you've got to be able to drink to be socializing in Japan.

MM: Even the ladies drink.

CM: And you have to be able sing a few songs or so, to entertain, that's Japanese custom.

DC: I heard you sing pretty well.

MM: Yeah, he's a good singer.

CM: [Laughs] I don't know. When I was... when my voice was changed, the voice teacher said, "Charlie, I'm going to give you a B for not singing at all," my voice was so low, it just wouldn't fit in with the other group. So I got a B of just sitting and watching the others. And that made me unable to sing for ten years or more. And I learned back to singing again when I was interned into the camp in 1942. And at that time, there was no entertainment whatsoever, and we hear the camp group have their talent in singing. And I was listening to them and I said, well... and that's how I got interested in singing. And besides, then I really come back to Albuquerque with my orchestra, my John Deere tractor, that was my background music.

DC: How do you use a tractor as background music?

CM: Well it makes a lot of noise so it drowned out my voice, so my neighbors won't hear me singing. I sing to myself. So because of the John Deere, I have a big volume.

DC: That's funny. So this was at Manzanar that you joined a chorus?

CM: No, no. Manzanar I was just a listener. Because there's a lot of talented people in the camp there, and so there's a... I went to a wedding, and one of the roommates got married and went to the wedding, and at that time this fellow was a good singer, he sang two songs, "Because" and "Be My Love" at the wedding. And it was beautiful, and I kept that to myself, and I used that song locally twenty years later. I was able to have the opportunity to use that for the wedding.

DC: I see. You first heard the song at a wedding?

CM: Yes.

DC: And then you sang it another wedding?

CM: After twenty years later here in Albuquerque, I had an opportunity to be able to sing in public. Outside of that I was a farmer, so I just sang to myself with my John Deere tractor, that was my orchestra.

DC: Out in the field you would sing?

CM: Yes.

DC: I see. Do you sing around the house?

CM: Oh yes.

MM: Oh, does he.

DC: Do you want to sing for us on camera?

MM: Sing one for us.

CM: Yeah, at ninety-two, you know, I still got the voice.

DC: Can we hear it?

CM: You want me to sing now?

DC: If you want.

CM: Oh my gosh.

MM: Go ahead, Charlie.

CM: You know, if I was going to sing here I'd have to be prepared, and I have a secret thing to prepare my voice.

ET: Oh my, you forgot to bring your celery.

MM: Well, I didn't know he was going to sing.

CM: Yes, right, you know, before I sing I usually get a celery, and I chew on that and the celery fluid, it lines my vocal voice and with that, my voice flows out freely and smoothly and without any effort.

ET: But try anyway, Charlie, without the celery.

CM: Yeah. What's a good song? Okay, I'll sing one, sort song.

MM: Okay, short, make it short.

CM: [Sings]

DC: That was beautiful, even without the celery. Thank you, that sounded great.

CM: Yeah, I should get a patent on the celery juice and sell it to these singers. Their voice quality will really pick up.

MM: Get patent in celery.

DC: That's funny. So we should probably return to the conversation about California before we get too far away from that. So you were going to high school in California?

MM: I graduated from high school there.

DC: You both did, right?

MM: Uh-huh.

DC: And so what year did you graduate?

MM: Huh?

DC: What year did you graduate?

ET: Mine was 1940, you graduated before because...

MM: '37

ET: I had to stay out of school for a year because I got sick.

MM: '38 or '39.

ET: '39 because I graduated in '40.

DC: So you were all grown up when the war started?

ET: Oh, yes.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2012 New Mexico JACL and Densho. All Rights Reserved.