Densho Digital Archive - Nori Masuda Interview (denshovh-mnori-01-0009)

<Begin Segment 9>

JS: So you worked so hard, how did you have time to do all the sports? You participated in lots of sports.

NM: I liked baseball.

JS: Uh-huh, baseball. One of my best, baseball, softball, of course. Yeah, that's all I knew, softball, softball, softball. Up to third, fourth, fifth grade, I was playing softball. That's why Lincoln school, we won the city champion. And there was two Nihonjin, myself and Hiroshi Nakai. And he and I were the only two Japanese that were on that team. We got a picture. So we won the championship that day, that year, 1929. [Laughs] I was a sixth grader at that time, grammar school, city champion. Got our picture and all that. Then I went to, when I went to Edison, it was junior high school, seventh, eighth grade. Then I started to play basketball. The basketball started coming in at that time, and I loved basketball, so I started playing that. I went out for high school, I went... I had played two years. Started to be tall, you know, and I kind of got tiptoed, you know. And they were mad, so, "Masuda, put your heels down." I got caught. [Laughs] I'm only 5'2", 5'3". Things like that. But I played C Team, A, B, C they had. I played for C Team. C two years, second year, first year, we didn't win a game. Second year, we won every game. We were the city champion. We were lucky. Then all the group, same team, said, "Nori, let's go on the B Team. Let's go the B." I thought, "I'm gonna sign for varsity and see what I can do." So I told 'em, "I won't be able to play with you." I made the varsity. So yes, I played.

TI: So you were a good athlete.

NM: Huh?

TI: You were a really good athlete, good player?

NM: I played, yeah. I played, I went out for track, football, basketball. I even played tennis, but they didn't have a tennis court. I played at church all the time, tennis. I was quite a player.

TI: And so within the Japanese community, amongst the other Japanese, were you one of the better, better players, better athletes?

NM: I played quite a bit.

TI: Like on Japanese baseball teams?

NM: Yeah, Zenimura's... I was taught from Zenimura and all that, yeah.

TI: And so what position did you play?

NM: But I liked basketball some more, so I went all for basketball. But when I played baseball, I used to catch. But I got bone bruises right here, you know, catching, and I couldn't catch anymore. So I played in the outfield. 'Cause one day -- this was in camp. We had a baseball field, you know, I went in the camp 1942, '42, went in camp, to assembly center. There was a field there. Zenimura was there, he's the baseball man. He's Mr. Baseball, Zenimura. [Indicates photograph] He's right here, this fellow here. Zenimura.

TI: Where are you?

NM: And then this is Yoshikawa, and this is Tsukimura. These three are A-class player. They could play any American league. They're good. They didn't hire any Japanese, they're prejudiced. But Tsukimura... Iwata's not in here. But Zenimura, Yoshikawa, and Nakagawa. They were the best players in the Japanese, and they got Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, they got a picture of that.