<Begin Segment 16>
RP: Mas, let's talk a little bit about some of your fishing experiences at Manzanar.
MN: Oh, yeah.
RP: When did you start fishing?
MN: That was in nineteen-forty... I think it was '43, 1943 or early part of '44. Yeah, we started to sneak out of camp. We were on the south end of the camp. People on the north end, they were going down to Shepherd's Creek and stuff and we were goin' out of south, guard post underneath the Bair's Creek and from there we used to sneak out and go toward George's Creek.
RP: Fish George's Creek?
MN: Yeah, fish George's Creek.
RP: So you'd normally go out at night.
MN: Yeah, get out at night.
RP: So what time would you leave camp, usually?
MN: Yeah, not too late, not too early. But if you go too early out there you, you stay out there all night. It's pretty, gets hairy and cold. You kind of time it.
RP: So would you go out after midnight?
MN: Yeah, after, it's always after midnight.
RP: Early hours of the morning.
MN: Yeah, yeah.
RP: And then you'd try to come back in while it was still dark?
MN: Yeah. Yeah. After still dark.
RP: Uh-huh.
MN: Yeah.
RP: And there was one occasion where you actually went out during the day.
MN: Oh yeah. That's when we got caught.
RP: Tell us about that.
MN: Yeah, well, I think it was fishing in George's Creek and near there's a MP road, jeep road, that guards the perimeter. They make rounds, see. So we were ready to come home, come back to camp and we were fishing there. Evidently they spotted us fishing. So that's, that's when we got caught. And, they asked if we had permit to be out here. And I said no. So he says, "All right. Let's go back in camp." So they put all in front of the jeep and there was MP walking behind us, one MP, with a bayonet. And marched us all the way into camp. I think we went to Block 12 and we went straight down Block 12 to the main gate there. And all the time we were marching down and this jeep with the MPs and bayonet and everything stickin' behind us and people coming out, what the hell's goin' on? And everybody just... we were just embarrassed. So we got thrown in jail and I think I was real young yet so notified the block leader, which was Seigo Murakami. Yeah, so he came down and he kind of gave us a little lecture for going out like that. So anyway, we got bailed out, more or less. But, we... I figured this way, what the hell, we're in camp. We're not going any place. And we go fishing trip and we get caught. They can't do too much to us. But all the charges they had, out of bound, fishing out of season and this and that. About five charges. Yeah. So, well anyway, Seigo, he bailed us out. There's two of us from Block 4.
RP: How many of you were total?
MN: Well we, there were about four or five of us. So there was people from Block 5 that used to come to Block 4 all the time. So actually, there was about five of us went out.
RP: And you were all bailed out?
MN: Yeah.
RP: No, no fines, no jail time.
MN: No fines. No.
RP: And did you go out again after that?
MN: Tried to, yeah.
RP: What happened? You tried to and...
MN: Well, after, after that incident you kind of hold back. You don't want to get caught again, see, so I think we more or less gave it up.
RP: So the beginning of that story was, that you shared with me, was that a friend of yours was an ambulance driver.
MN: Oh, yeah. See, he took us out that day, that night. He took us out and he, he left us out there and that's the time that when we tried to come back during the day we got caught, see. Yeah. He had this, Kiyoshi, guy named Kiyoshi. He used to drive ambulance. So anywhere we had to go from our block to go north block, well, he used to pick us up and take us there. Because ambulance, I mean, hospital was on the north end. So he always, anything that we had to go north he used to come and pick us up. Because he used to come and when he wasn't on duty, ambulance driving duty, he used to come to our block and mingle with us.
RP: Oh, a good guy to know.
MN: Yeah. And we had a lot of old guys that, guys coming from Block 5. In fact we had one guy from Block 15 or something like that. Thee used to come to our block because we used to play a lot of pinochle and we had ping pong, so play ping pong. And used to try to get these young kids nice stuff for boxing, things like that. So there's a lot of outside, older guys used to come in. And we'd split up to play basketball. We had a little court.
RP: Was that in, in front of the latrines?
MN: Yeah right, right. Yeah.
RP: Oh, wow.
MN: Homemade, homemade basketball court.
RP: So Seigo, was he kind of like a, you said he was kind of like a father figure to you.
MN: Right, right. Yeah, yeah.
RP: Wow. And...
Off Camera: Did you get in trouble by your parents for going out too?
MN: No.
Off Camera: Did they find out?
MN; No, no... they, afterwards they knew, knew about it because Seigo and my father they communicate and talk. So, he found out about it that way.
RP: So when you did go out and fish, did you catch fish?
MN: Yeah, we caught fish. But the fish we caught was confiscated. We couldn't bring it in. They took that away from us.
RP: And the MPs had a nice fish fry?
MN: Right, they had a fish dinner, trout.
RP: So, what was your, what was your approach to fishing? Did you, did you have any formal rod and reel?
MN: At that time?
RP: Yeah.
MN: No, use a, I think a, we had mail order telescopic fishing pole we got from Sears. Because we found out that Georgia Creek is nothing but brush, no open area where you could fish. You had to go through your tree branches and brush and try to get to the creek. You get, there's no place you could take a regular rod. It'd get all hung up. So you take a telescopic and just... So, that's the way we fished over there.
RP: And what did you use for bait?
MN: Grub. Either earth grub or you take a rock, you open up a rock, there's usually a bug, or grasshopper. There was earthworm, grasshopper, that's the only thing we used to use. And regular rock grub that's in the creek.
<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.