<Begin Segment 10>

RP: Some of these basketball games, did they attract spectators or crowds? Did they watch girls?

ES: Oh, not too much, no. Girls' sports weren't watched much, just by other girls who liked sports. I can't even remember parents coming out much to watch.

RP: In your opinion, do you feel like the girls athletic program at Manzanar was on an equal footing with the boys program?

ES: Yes, I think with Manzanar it was.

RP: But not in the case before?

ES: I don't think among the Caucasians that it was definitely was not on an equal footing like it is now. But here at Manzanar I think the boys didn't have anything more than the girls had.

RP: The basketball games, were they played... you said there were two courts but would it be considered a full court game or just a --

ES: It was a full court game, yes. Except the guards had to stay in their court and the forwards had to stay in theirs. So it was the job of the guards to get the ball to the forwards.

RP: And basketball like every other sport at Manzanar was played on dirt.

ES: Yes, I mean even tennis.

RP: Was it difficult for the girls to dribble on that dirt? Was the dirt packed down hard enough that it was relatively easy to dribble a ball?

ES: Well, I think it was a little dusty.

RP: Were there times where a dust storm would come up and you'd have to postpone a game?

ES: No, I can't ever remember postponing a game. But most of the games were held in gym class.

RP: How about disciplinary issues being a teacher?

ES: Well, I would find out that some of the girls would sneak away, especially the senior girls would sneak away from the firebreak and go home for lunch or go home at the end of the day. So my solution to that was to take roll call at the end of the day instead of the beginning.

RP: And that solved the problem?

ES: That solved the problem.

RP: Were there any situations where girls would come up to you and discuss or express their opinions or feeling about "why am I in this camp"?

ES: No, I can't remember that they ever did. The girls all seemed to be really happy.

RP: Did it feel to you coming into the camp a little later, many people talk about the sense of normalcy that was attempted to be created here. Did you feel a sense of normalcy, a normal situation?

ES: I thought there was. I think Ralph Merritt was a good administrator. I think he let the Japanese run the camp as much as they could, you know, that they were allowed to. They had their own police and their own fire department, their own churches. And the students were allowed to have their own clubs.

RP: And one of those clubs you were involved with, club called the Funsters?

ES: The Funsters, yes, it was a junior group and they asked me to be their moderator. And they were a good group of girls and I think nearly every one of those girls finished college. And I know before I was married the Funsters gave me a wedding shower and there was so much handwork done. I mean, I received one of the gifts was pillow cases and they had stenciled the pillow cases in a different design and colors and so I always appreciated those girls.

RP: Did they... were they involved in specific activities or were they just a group of girls that met?

ES: It was just a group of girls that met and a social group.

RP: They didn't promote dances or any other camp activities?

ES: Well, like the name implied, they were Funsters.

RP: Were there any particular girls that you remember from that group?

ES: Well, especially Kazi because we've kept in contact all these years.

RP: Tell us about Kazi.

ES: Well, she was an outstanding athlete, she was also an excellent student and I just forget everything. She lived an interesting life, she graduated from nursing school at... I think she didn't go to USC but she was at the nursing school at the USC General Hospital there in Los Angeles. And then later on she became head surgical nurse for Harvard General Hospital and married an engineer and he had been in a different camp. He wasn't at Manzanar.

RP: You still keep in touch with Kazi?

ES: Yes, she visited me at my board and care home about two years ago and her husband wasn't doing well at that time.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright &copy; 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.