<Begin Segment 7>

KL: Did he play teams from Terminal Island, did I read?

RF: Yes. In fact, Pearl Harbor Day he drove and I went with him to play in an all-star game in Terminal Island. Terminal Island, of course, was all Japanese, and they had a stellar baseball team there. So a lot of the center of baseball in Japanese circles played down there. But there was an all-star game that day, and he played in it. And I'm not sure whether it was on the way or on the way back when the news of Pearl Harbor broke. It must have been on the way, because... no, I'm not sure. I can't remember. Anyway, that was a very memorable day for me.

KL: Did you hear it in a...

RF: On the radio, car radio.

KL: In a car radio? What was your reaction?

RF: Well, it was shock. I didn't know much about what was going on with world affairs, and I thought, "Wow, this is huge." Of course, after that, it was blackout time, and had blackout curtains in all the houses.

KL: Do you think that your parents or friends of theirs were following events in Japan, or do you think they were too busy working and raising kids?

RF: I don't think... first of all, we didn't have a shortwave radio, so I don't think they were following it too closely, where I think some families had shortwave radios to follow things more from Japan. But we didn't, and I'm not sure if my dad was that closely aware of what was going on.

KL: When you and your brother got home, what was your family's response?

RF: Well, it was kind of a shock, so we didn't know what to say or what to do, except the word first came out pretty quickly that we should keep blackout curtains and not stray out around at nighttime. And so for a teenager at the time, it was more of an adventure, so you know, that's going on, and heard about these planes coming over, went out in the street, we didn't stay in the house. So that's about all I remember about those days.

KL: Was there, I've heard some people say that their principal or teachers in their school would make statements in some cases to treat Japanese American students well. Do you remember anything from your school administrators?

RF: I never heard anything.

KL: Nobody talked about it, it was just...

RF: No. Nobody said anything derogatory or anything to me at that time, so I don't know. I was pretty active at University High School. At that time, the year before that, I was elected to be a cheerleader.

KL: I was surprised to read that that was an election. You didn't have tryouts, it was chosen?

RF: Well, I don't know why, but I did it. That's my independent streak. And some of my friends said, "Go ahead and do it, dare you to do it," sort of thing. So I said, okay, I'm going to do it. So you get up on stage and you perform in front of the whole student body, leading a cheer and trying to be a hotshot to let them know that you're going to be a good cheerleader. So I went up there and did my thing, what do you know, I was elected, the student body elected the cheerleaders. Typically the cheerleaders were usually always Caucasian, and they were gymnasts because they have to do a lot of somersaults and that sort of... and I don't do any of that. So I was kind of an anomaly. Two other guys who were cheerleaders were Caucasians from Westwood, wealthy, white, athletic, gymnastic, and here I was a Japanese son of a gardener, no athletic, gymnastic skills, cheering people on.

KL: Did you write your own cheer?

RF: Hmm?

KL: Did you write your own cheer for the tryout?

RF: Well, you spell out the high school University: "University, yay!" [Laughs]

KL: That got a good response, huh?

RF: I was running all over the place. But it led to other things, because I was also elected, or selected to be a member of the Squires group, which was a boys service group. And then I was elected to be secretary to the boys student body, so knowing that we were going to be relocated, evacuated, I had to formally resign. I wrote the resignation letter and it was read in front of the student body.

KL: Who read it?

RF: I can't remember.

KL: Somebody... not you, though.

RF: Yeah, not me.

KL: You were still there at the school?

RF: Yeah, sitting the audience.

KL: What was that like?

RF: Well, it was kind of sad. But I couldn't do anything about it. I felt I should formally resign instead of just abruptly leaving.

KL: What was the other students' response to your resignation and your leaving?

RF: I don't recall anyone being very vocal about it. Not many people talked about it to me, about the whole evacuation situation. I think some of my friends I know were pretty disappointed and sad about it happening.

KL: Caucasian friends?

RF: Yeah, Caucasian friends. One especially, a fellow by the name of Glenn Holtby, who was a very close friend of mine, lived in Westwood. An excellent track athlete, in fact, we played together from junior high school, Emerson junior high school. I know he was pretty sad about it, he wrote a letter to me in camp, and his mother sent some things to me as well, which was very nice of them. That's about all I remember.

KL: Did you write back to his letter? Did you write for a while?

RF: I'm not a very good letter writer.

KL: You weren't there very long.

RF: But I think I did, I'm not sure. I don't remember.

Off camera: Ed Lindhop.

RF: Pardon? Oh, Ed Lindhop, that's right. Ed Lindhopwas a classmate, and he was very verbal and vocal about the evacuation. I don't recall much that he, what he did until after camp, after... at reunions as well as his statements in the alumni newsletter. In fact, he also came to Manzanar several times. Several times? One time. Who'd he come with?

Off camera: Don Lindsey?

RF: Don Lindsey? That's right, yeah. Don Lindsey. Don Lindsey was also a classmate.

KL: They just drove up and came to visit?

RF: I'm not sure how that happened. So Don Lindsey and Ed Lindhop. In fact, both were teachers at Uni High after that. Their careers were teachers at Uni High.

KL: Did you have them? [Addressing someone off camera.]

Off camera: I had Mr. Lindsey. The principal was against the Japanese Americans.

RF: That was Principal Wadsworth.

Off camera: Yes, at the time.

KL: He thought the Japanese Americans should be removed?

RF: Yeah. In fact, to this day, University High School still has not honored those that would have graduated at University High School. So I guess... the school has, the city sponsored a program to honor graduates of high schools, 'cause I've never attended anything. I wasn't invited to any.

<End Segment 7> - Copyright © 2012 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.