<Begin Segment 8>

RP: So having been to Japan, living in Japan for almost four years, you came back and hostilities between the two countries continued to grow. China, I mean Japan was, was still in China and do you, do you recall hearing about the tensions between the two countries? Did you have any, did your parents have any concerns or thoughts about an impending war?

MN: Oh, I don't think, I don't know. I don't think so. They talked, they talked about it 'cause when I was in Japan, 1937, Japan went to war with China and even got back to the States, they discuss about it but that's about it. So we knew it was still...

RP: Simmering.

MN: Yeah.

RP: Did they continue to send money back to their family in Japan after you guys got back from there?

MN: No. Just when we were there my mom used to send allotment for three of us. So, after that, after we came back that was it that they...

RP: Your dad was a gardener during this time before, before you went to Manzanar?

MN: Yeah.

RP: Was he involved in any associations or groups?

MN: Japanese... no, no, no. He was a, he was a loaner more or less.

RP: Now coming from a samurai, samurai background as he did, did he have any swords or any other paraphernalia?

MN: Not that I know of. I think all that stuff was, he left it in Japan. Yeah, even though they, the family had a lot of property in Japan, Kagoshima. And the older brothers, they stayed... oldest is more or less is the head of the household so he had the main house. So, all that stuff he, he left it in Japan. Even there was a property, even though the Nakajo family, they left the property even my father, they divide it up, but he didn't want to go back and claim it. He just left it. He didn't want to go back.

RP: He never went back.

MN: No, he didn't. Yeah, he liked to play baseball. That was his main thing in college, I mean, not college but while he was going to school in Japan. I mean as a teenager. He used to be a pitcher. Yeah. He, yakyuu, that's baseball in Japanese. That was his favorite sport, baseball.

RP: Baseball. And did he play it when he came to America?

MN: No. But he talked about it.

RP: Did he? Did he used to go to ballgames at all, watch the teams?

MN: No. No.

RP: There were quite a few teams around the L.A. area.

MN: Yeah.

RP: Japanese teams?

MN: Yeah.

RP: The league. San Fernando Aces and...

MN: All that stuff came in after... went into camp, you see different... the Montebello Gophers and that was a basketball teams. Then the San Fernando, there was a baseball team that came to Manzanar and they had leagues. All that stuff, after everybody got into camp was start coming out but before that he hardly noticed it. I didn't notice it.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.