<Begin Segment 17>

KL: So you, it sounds like you do have some memories of the riot.

GM: Little bit of the riot. I just know there was a moving going, outdoor movie party. The riot was down by the gate area, Block 1, right? We lived in Block 5 over here. Somewhere over here must have been where they were showing the movie. And we kids were heading toward it, and I just remember people just running diagonally from our path. And then later we heard about, I don't know if it was after we came out of the movie or what, we heard what happened. I didn't know the story as a kid, naturally. It wasn't until years later I read what happened and all that.

KL: Where was the movie that you saw?

GM: I can't remember that.

KL: Was it outside, or was in the rec hall?

GM: Oh, it might have been in one of the barracks, yeah. I know that sometimes they had movies. Like early on, I remember the San Pedro people, they kind of dominated.

KL: What was your take on that?

GM: I was too young, but I find it funny... well, my own experience was that one time there was a movie down in Block 8 or somewhere, and they had a stack of hay, and they had a shade in front, but it was still light yet. And my friend Eddie this guy that led me up in the Alabama Hills, he and I were up on top and we started wrestling with some of the other kids. And we were having fun, and we were trying to get more guys to help us. And the kids are running, and we're yelling, "Come on, come on," and they were all pulling us off. And later I found out they were all San Pedro kids. [Laughs] They all knew each other. But so I myself, I know the older people like my sister Tosh, she graduated from Manzanar High and Bainbridge, Block 3, those people, I understand some of them were moved out of there for their own safety and all that. And Tosh told me years later that she remembers one time New Year's, Christmas, they had a party at the mess hall, Block 3, and tablecloth, candles, and all that. And two or three of the San Pedro guys, they were drunk, supposedly drunk. And they got one of the Bainbridge guys tied on to one of the pillars, and then they proceeded to belt whip them and they knocked over the tables with the tablecloth and all that. I thought, oh, no wonder, after the war, and I was a teenager, and never was involved. How many times guys from L.A. used to go to Long Beach because a lot of the San Pedro people settled over there, and they used to go after certain ones that maybe...

KL: Oh, really?

GM: Yeah. I never was, I just never happened to go. I had friends that, when we were still young, they didn't get involved, but they were down there and that happened.

KL: Did you have friends from Bainbridge Island from Block 3?

GM: No, I don't think I knew anybody from Block 3. My sister did, but because she was a teenager.

KL: Where were your friends from?

GM: Block 5 mostly. It's only when I went to junior high school that I met kids from other blocks.

KL: How would you describe Block 5? It seems like some of the blocks have identities. What defined Block 5?

GM: Gee, I don't know. Well, as a kid we used to criticize the mess hall, and the lousy food and all that. And I remember they punched the numbers of people coming in to eat, and Eddie again, he's the leader, we come there and we would start saying, "It's going to be [inaudible]," you know, one of the dishes. "No, it's buta dofu." "No, we had that yesterday." And then the man would get mad at us. And then we used to go to other blocks, Block 11 and all that, to get pastry. Then one time we found out from the head cook's son, who was a little younger, told us that on some Saturdays, all of the mess hall workers, they gathered in the mess hall and they'd make pastries and they'd take it home. And they found out, and that's why we never got them.

KL: Did you ever see the pastries?

GM: Not in that... I don't know when, it might have been a short period of time when this guys was in the mess hall. So we were probably a little older then by that time, I was about twelve, thirteen.

KL: What were the good mess halls? Where would you go?

GM: Well, we used to go to Block 11 and 12 for pastries and all that. But I'm sure the older guys did more of that kind of thing, but we kind of stuck to our own block.

KL: You said that you were in Block 5. What was your address in Block 5?

GM: 5-11-3.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2013 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.