<Begin Segment 17>

RP: Do you have any recollections whatsoever of the Manzanar, quote, "riot" that occurred?

MY: Yes.

RP: Trouble in camp roughly, what, almost December 7, '42.

MY: Yes, I remember.

RP: What do you recall?

MY: Well, my mother was very apprehensive that night, and my father was usually home every night, but he wasn't at home that night, and she was near tears, said, "I told him not to go." And it seems that our neighbor, Mr. Nakamura, went and my father went, just to see what was going on. And they had a mini riot and they shot at people, and Mr. Nakamura got, I know it happened because he was shot right in the neck, but fortunately it missed whatever veins that one has in one's neck. And I know Mrs. Nakamura was just so upset because she had told him not to go, and he was in the hospital for a long time. And my father got back, and I don't know if that was the night that they were looking for this certain...

RP: Gentleman.

MY: Political person.

RP: JACL.

MY: Yeah, person, and I think he lived right across from us in Block 29 or 28, 'cause we were 33. And they were looking for him and they were very angry men, saying that they wanted to, quote, hurt him, to hang him or whatever. And it was a very frightening experience 'cause I could hear them shouting as they were looking for him. And I hung out the window, and I wanted to look and see what was going on, said, "If they're going to do something I want to see it." My mother said, "Get back in," and she slammed the windows shut. [Laughs] And the next day was, it was in December, I think they closed school for a couple of days. Did they? Yeah. And so it was a nice holiday for us, but not, nothing much to do 'cause it was so cold. And I know that a big uproar about signing the allegiance.

RP: "Loyalty questionnaire."

MY: Yeah. And it didn't affect us because we're all so young, but it did affect the families who had children under, over eighteen. And I think that's the thing that I remember the most. There was lots of discussion going on, but I was not privy to that. That, they would not discuss with me. And it caused a lot of families to separate because I think those that signed "no-no" -- they used to call them "no-no boys" -- they were sent to Tule Lake.

RP: Do you remember families in your block leaving?

MY: Not in my block. There weren't too many young men. But I do know that one second cousin, I think, was sent up there. But my father didn't mention it to me.

RP: Your father was Issei, again, bilingual and very sort of Americanized as well.

MY: Yes.

RP: So we had, you had three different factions in the camp, there's the Niseis, the Kibeis and... where there any, did he have any contact with any of those specific groups? I mean, did he tend to congregate with Isseis? Or could he, could he kind of flow freely amongst the different --

MY: I think he felt comfortable with any of the groups, and he, mostly with the group that had a family. And then working as a butcher, I think that maybe he went to work early, 'cause he was usually home by two, three o'clock in the afternoon, but he had put in, quote, a full day's work. And I don't think there was a day that he come home any later than four o'clock, even though he was a supervisor down there. Because outside vendors would come in to bring the meat, and my father would order the meat that was needed for the camp.

RP: Right. And the camp was also under rationing too, so your dad was, was he the head butcher?

MY: Yes. Yes, he was the... well, he always said the foreman. He was not the butcher 'cause he had to learn on the job. He was there really to help with the ordering and keeping of the books because that was all done in English, and then I think each of the chefs, based upon the population in the block, I don't know who set up the menus, then he would, he and the butchers would decide when to send the meat to the mess halls. And I think that was all settled, set up above his level, because I'm sure to do the economics they maybe had a budget as to what they could purchase, I mean the kinds of food that they could purchase.

RP: How often do you recall having meat?

MY: I don't remember having meat often. And they, I know we had sometimes beef, we had pork, we had chicken, lots of vegetables.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.