<Begin Segment 20>

TI: Okay, so let's talk about now going from Walerga to Tule Lake.

BK: Oh, Tule Lake was an adventure for me. I went to Castle Rock almost every weekend, and my girlfriend and two other friends, we snuck out and went to Abalone Mountain and came across the sentry in a jeep, but we made it. [Laughs]

TI: So do you remember, so when the MP comes up, the sentry comes up in a jeep and sees you and your friends, what happened?

BK: I don't know. I mean, see, those are... I don't know.

TI: Earlier you talked about while you were in camp, you learned about the fact that your family had to pay mortgage to keep the house or the business, the car, and eventually you lost it all.

BK: Yeah.

TI: Was that wearing on your parents? They must have been worried about all those things happening.

BK: They must have been worried, but you know, they never showed it to us. My mom still made our clothes.

TI: So they pretty much shielded that from the kids, they didn't really let you know that, what was happening with the family property.

BK: Yeah. So she just said that, you know, "When we go home, we probably won't have anything to go home to."

TI: What other memories at Tule Lake? You mentioned going on these adventures to Castle Rock and Abalone Mountain. What other memories do you have?

BK: Oh, I remember my tap dancing teacher go through the, we used to skate on the sewer pond, and she fell through and I laughed my head off. [Laughs]

TI: So you have to describe this. So this was during the winter, you're talking about ice skating on the frozen sewer.

BK: Uh-huh, sewer pond.

TI: And your, and who fell through?

BK: My tap dancing teacher. And my, you know Yukio Shimoda?

TI: No, I don't know...

BK: You don't know Yukio Shimoda? Oh, he was an actor, but he was my modern dance teacher. And do you know Judge Sakuma?

TI: No, I don't.

BK: Oh. I guess if (you didn't) live here, you (wouldn't) know him. He used to be a judge here, and his wife, Pearl, was my ballet teacher. So I used to take different kind of dancing lessons. And I had fun, and then I used to help with passing out the baby bottles to mothers. So I did some community work, kind of. Not paid, but on a volunteer basis.

TI: So going back to the dance, I'm wondering, were you able to get, in some cases, more exposure to things like modern dance, tap and ballet at Tule Lake than you would have at Isleton?

BK: Well, like in Isleton, once a year we used to have a talent show, so I was used to tap dancing and hula and ballet and all that. So when I went to camp and found out through the recreation department they were giving all these classes, so I told my girlfriend, "Let's go and sign up." And she didn't want to, so I went. And I still remember we did it in one of the firebreaks in camp. And I remember doing ballet with the Yoshida sisters, and I remember Yukio Shimoda embarrassing the hell out of me.

TI: How did he do that?

BK: Because we were supposed to be leaned over in a conga line, and my nose itched, so I went and scratched my nose. And he just happened to catch me, and, you know, so he said, "Why are you picking on your nose when you're supposed to be standing at attention?" And so I said, "If you don't like it, I'm not gonna stay," and I just left.

TI: Did he ever apologize, or did you ever go back?

BK: No. I went back, 'cause I wanted to dance.

TI: So you were just upset, you went back, but later on you came back, I see.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.