<Begin Segment 13>

AL: So what did you do at Heart Mountain, did you work at all?

GY: Yeah, well I started out driving a coal truck we used deliver the coal to the mess hall to dump it so they used it to cook with, and then we'd get eight dollars a month. Then one of my friends said, "You used to like to do a little writing in high school, so why don't you go work at the paper?" And so I went over and I don't know if Bill Hosokawa, he was the editor there, so I went in and I said, "Mr. Hosokawa, is there a chance for me to join the staff?" So he said, "Well, what's your expertise?" And I said that's when I really blew it, I said, "What does expertise mean?" [Laughs] He says, "You want to be a writer, you don't know what expertise means?" He says, "When you find out, come back." So then later on I went back about a couple weeks later I said, "Well, I'm interested in sports." So he said, "Okay, go out and write a sports story and I'll see what..." and that's how I got the job.

AL: So what was your first sports story about?

GY: I wrote about the high school football team. And then Bill said, "Well, you know what a columnist is?" I said, "No, what is a columnist?" He says, "Well, you could express all your own opinions, so why don't you write a sports column?"

AL: So what were some of the opinions you expressed?

GY: Well, it's mostly like I didn't change too much from those days. That's what Bill enjoyed he says, "Boy, you really know how to sound off." [Laughs]

AL: So what were some of the things you were sounding off about?

GY: Well, last night they talked about the Manzanar High School football team and I started on that issue that how come we can't, nothing to do with Manzanar, but how come the Heart Mountain High School team can't play outside teams, you know. And that's how we started it and we had no problem; we played five outside schools.

AL: Do you remember which schools, which towns?

GY: Yeah, we played in Moreland, Lovell, and then they wanted us to go to Montana but the government said no.

AL: And you said you were undefeated? Your team was undefeated? And so what position were you playing there?

GY: I was a lineman. I was the captain of the team. I don't know why they made me the captain because we were undefeated.

AL: And you were writing? When did you start writing like early on?

GY: Yeah, about that time and I was already interested in sports so even until about eight, nine years ago I was... my actual main activity in addition to writing was more in sports. I used to promote boxing and bring Japanese fighters over here. And then of course as I said I founded the Japan Bowl.

AL: So when you were working on the Sentinel, who else did you work with beside Bill Hosokawa? Like did you work with Estelle Ishigo there?

GY: No, there was a fellow that was the editor of the Nichi Bei Times in San Francisco and mostly ladies. There were very few guys that worked on the paper because I guess they, being the condition as it were.

AL: What did you think of Bill Hosokawa? I mean, did you work a lot with him? Would you say he was a mentor?

GY: Oh, yeah, he was my mentor, he helped me a lot. And he said, I still remember he said, "You have a flair for writing but you got to polish it up." [Laughs]

AL: What was life in Heart Mountain like for your mom, did she work?

GY: It was pretty bad 'cause she had to... they had no special things for people with poor health and even at the hospital she had to go to the hospital once a week and there was no taxi or anything. Fortunately, we only... we're very close to the Heart Mountain hospital but I really sympathize with people that were, lived and they had to walk to the hospital.

AL: Did your mom, did she pass away at Heart Mountain or did she live through it?

GY: No, she passed away when I was overseas.

AL: Okay.

GY: And that was another issue that's every once in a while things hit you that I'm different from... 'cause there's another guy in my outfit, his father passed away and the Red Cross went out of their way to get him back so he could attend the service. When my sister contacted me and said my mother passed away, the Red Cross said, "No way."

AL: Was that other person who was sent back, was he Japanese American?

GY: No, he was Caucasian. And when things like that happen I kind of sense, hey, every once in a while it hits you, that hey, I'm a little different.

AL: At least people think so, people say so.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright &copy; 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.