<Begin Segment 15>

RP: Can you grab that picture right there? You want to hold it up for the camera? [SK holds up photo] Just like that, yeah. Now tell us who's in that picture.

SK: Me and, Frank and me, Frank and I.

RP: Tell us about Frank.

SK: Actually, he was, after the war, I mean before the war, he joined the, he, what was it called, in the navy. You know that... it's like the Coast Guard, I think. And they don't take Japanese during the war, but being a Hawaiian born, I guess that's how they, he got in there. And he became, of course you start from the bottom, and he, right away he became a chief butcher there, so they gave him this two stripes thing or one stripe thing, whatever you call it.

KP: You can put that down now.

RP: So he...

SK: And he was good, the head, the purser and the captain, and he had, the three of them used to all go around together. Yeah, and they all thought he was, well, he was born in Hawaii, so they thought he was a Hawaiian. But then during the war he had a lot of these Japanese prisoners taken, so he spoke to them. "You work or you don't get fed." And these Japanese high, these big shots, at first they refused to do that, so Frank says, "Okay, no, if you're not gonna work, no food." And finally they realized, then he was really nice to them. He talked to them. He was nice talking to them anyway, but after they start working, man, he'd bring them apples and oranges, and they never had things like that before in Japan. So toward the end, they gave him cards. "After the war, you come to my house." And, "You come to my house." Frank says, "These poor fellows, there is no more home 'cause they're all bombed." They had, but I guess they didn't realize that. But he was nice to them later on. Later on they did everything, they did all the work, what they had to do.

KP: So Frank served in the regular navy in World War II? Am I hearing this right?

SK: What was that?

RP: He served in the regular navy during World War II?

SK: Yeah. I think he was one of them, what they call the Coast Guard, transporting soldiers here and taking soldiers or something like that.

RP: And so --

SK: Not in a battle thing. Course there were... but they used to go to different islands, different places, so he traveled here and there, so he said, "I don't want to travel anymore," when he came home.

RP: So he came to, did he come to visit you at Manzanar, when that picture was taken?

SK: We were in Manzanar.

RP: Did he come there, he must've come during the war.

SK: Yeah, he came with us. Yeah, he helped us. He helped Grandpa. He was really good to old people like Grandpa and all that. Yeah, he really took good care of Grandpa.

RP: So are you saying that he went in with you, to Manzanar?

SK: Yes, yes.

RP: So was he discharged from the navy before that time?

SK: No, after, this is after Manzanar, then he went into the navy.

RP: After Manzanar.

SK: After that, yeah, after that, after we came home he joined the navy.

RP: So you knew him, did you know him before you went to Manzanar?

SK: Oh yes.

RP: And was he, was he your boyfriend in camp?

SK: No, he was just nobody. But he used to, he was nobody. [Laughs] I mean, but he did help Grandpa. Once he was in, he did help him a lot. Yeah, so that was one thing that was nice. He used to help the other people, older people. In those things he was very good, helping people.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright &copy; 2011 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.