<Begin Segment 16>
JS: Walter, were you on any of the sports teams? Did you play on the baseball team for Walnut Grove?
WM: Walnut Grove is old guys. Young guys didn't play, we didn't have...
JS: Oh, you were too young.
WM: Yeah, old people used to play.
JS: I see. So just with the school.
WM: Just with our friends we'd play.
JS: With the friends.
WM: Yeah.
TI: How about organized Japanese activities like judo or kendo?
WM: Yeah, after that, they had judo, everything.
TI: Now, did you do that, too?
WM: I did judo. Then they have sumo, too.
JS: Did you do sumo? Yeah?
WM: When I was a kid. And I did it in camp, too. That's nothing, go push you down.
TI: And so when you did sumo, who were the best sumo people? You had not only the townspeople, but also the...
WM: Only town. Only town guys.
TI: So the farm people didn't do sumo?
WM: Maybe too busy, they're working.
JS: Who was the leader of the sumo? Who organized sumo in Walnut Grove?
WM: I think Yagi, Yagi.
JS: Oh, Mr. Yagi.
TI: Now, I'm curious. So you were in the town, and then you also had all these families in the farms that were outside of town. Did you ever, did you know very many people, of the farm people?
WM: Not too many.
TI: How did the townspeople get along with the farm, the kids? How did you get along with the farm people? Like if you saw them at judo or baseball, did you ever...
WM: They didn't come out, though. After the camp they used to come out and play basketball like that.
TI: Before we go to the war, how about your relationship with the white community? Did you do anything with the white community?
WM: No.
TI: Now, I read someplace where it said that your sister worked in the bank?
WM: Yeah, after camp.
TI: Oh, after camp?
WM: Yeah.
TI: Okay, so not before camp. Was this Bessie, or which sister?
WM: Rose. Bessie was gone already.
TI: Okay. So after war, Rose worked in... okay, so we'll come back to that later, I'll ask about that.
<End Segment 16> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho and Preserving California's Japantowns. All Rights Reserved.