<Begin Segment 23>

RP: Kaz, have you returned to Manzanar?

KY: Yeah.

RP: And visited?

KY: Uh-huh. When I go fishing I would stop by there.

RP: Yeah, so when did you start going fishing in that area?

KY: Oh, I knew after I moved here I started getting interested in going to Crawley and those other places. And so I would, besides, before, before we moved here my daughter's husband and her husband's father knew, loved fishing. And they liked to go up to Crawley and places like that. And so I joined them one time and I liked it so much that ever since then I started fishing, fresh water fishing. I never was a fresh water fisherman before. I didn't even have a pole for fresh water fishing. But my friend, who passed away, liked to go fresh water fishing and he says, "Oh yeah, there's nothing like it." So I says, well, I don't even have a pole for fresh water." So, he helped me find a pole and we started going fishing in the mountains. And I loved it because of the fresh air. And so... I used to do nothing but ocean fishing before. But after that it was nothing but fresh water fishing. Yeah, I loved it.

RP: So what was it like to go back to Manzanar so many years later?

KY: Well, I was curious of course. But it's so different now, where the camps used to be. Nothing like what it used to be. But I'm glad I'm not in that camp anymore.

RP: You were talking about how you got interested in fresh water fishing. Did you, did you ever sneak out of the camp at all at Manzanar?

KY: No.

RP: Did you know about guys who went to...

KY: I knew, I knew people who did do that but I didn't even want to think about it, about going out. But you know what? This guy that I grew up with, he was an upper classman, next grade up, he used to live in the Santa Monica canyon before the war. And so he knew about fishing. Oh, and before that he lived in the canyon and I would go surf fishing with him. I'd go from here to his house over in the Santa Monica canyon. And together we'd go to, go to this beach and surf fish. And that's what I, that's the only thing I did was surf fishing, before, until this fresh water fishing came up. And my friend who, who lives in the valley, he used to do nothing but fresh water fishing before the war. So he says, "How about, how about going fresh water fishing?" I says, "Gee, I don't, I don't have a pole or anything. I don't know anything about that." But he introduced me to fresh water fishing and that's all I did after that. I don't even think about going ocean fishing.

RP: So what are your, what's your overall feeling about your camp experience?

KY: Well, I didn't mind it. I thought it was a good time to meet new friends and... well, I was gonna say something. This guy that I used to go surf fishing with, when he was in camp his brother and himself and his father, that's three of 'em, would do what you were talking about, sneaking out of camp and go fishing up in the mountains. Well, that's what they did one time. They snuck out of camp and they went fishing up in the mountains. Well, the father and the two sons got separated. They decided to go different, different ways. And so they went fishing that way and after they had enough fishing they wanted to go back to camp. So they snuck back into camp and before they got to camp they decided to meet someplace so they can all come back together. Well, the sons got to the spot where they were supposed to meet their father and he never showed up. So they said, well, we'd better go back to camp anyway and the father would probably come later on. So they went back to camp and they waited and waited and the father never came back. And so they finally had to tell the authorities that their father was out there in the mountains, he had never came back. So they had a search party searching for them. And they still couldn't find him until one time these guys that patrol the mountains, I don't know what they do but they regularly patrol the mountains, and they found him. He, what happened was that he was probably on the hillside and he stumbled down and killed himself and he was unable to move. And so that's what he died of, exposure. But they were able to collect some things of his and make, have a funeral with, with what they could collect from his body. And so that was one incident that involved my friends and Manzanar, how he, how he died. But he still lives over here, not far from my house.

RP: What's his name?

KY: Matsumura.

RP: Matsumura.

KY: Yeah.

RP: And the son, his first name?

KY: Huh?

RP: Do you remember his first name? The gentleman who lives just a little ways from here?

KY: Yeah, Matsumura.

RP: Is that his... that's his last name right?

KY: Yeah, that's his last name.

RP: Oh, okay.

KY: Mas Matsumura.

RP: Oh Mas, okay.

KY: Yeah, and then before the war he was a class ahead of me and he was a good football player. He was known for kicking field goals. And he was a, he was kind of a strange guy, very quiet. But he always lived in the canyon and the teacher from the school used to drive a school bus and pick up kids like that who live in the valley, in the canyon, to come to the school. And I think what happened was this, the teacher or the school says, why don't you kids -- they lived, the way you get in the canyon is on Seventh Street you come to the place where there's a road that goes down into the canyon -- and they told 'em, "Why don't you kids come up to, walk up to the top of the road where Santa Monica goes into the canyon? Why don't you guys walk up there so the teacher won't have to go down into the canyon?" Something like that and they took offense about that. And so they quit going to Japanese school. But he was in my class, in the Japanese school class. And so they never came back anymore. But he wasn't able to go to school anymore and continue Japanese school. And yet his parents were responsible for starting a Japanese school, a Santa Monica Japanese school. They were the ones that were the initial people who started the Japanese school. Isn't that funny?

<End Segment 23> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.