<Begin Segment 15>

KL: The riot is very interesting because if you talk to any person who remembers it, their memory will be unique about what caused it and where they were and what happened, even, that night. It's very, there are many different versions of it. So you have no, do you have a memory of...

SO: Of the riot?

MS: Well, I heard that there was something that happened by the gate, right?

SO: Where were you? At the movies?

MS: No. And that's all I heard, that somebody was shot. That was kind of scary. Well, the guards always scared me anyway. I think any kid would see the guards and the guard towers and all that kind of thing, because, remember, we never talked about those things, so it's just observing.

KL: All of a sudden there's a man with a gun, or several?

SO: I didn't know that there were eight towers in Manzanar.

KL: Do you recall the towers?

SO: Oh, yeah, I remember. And then I think I read quite recently that the guns were pointing into the camp.

MS: Well, yeah, who's going to be outside? [Laughs]

SO: Well, I thought, gee, maybe they're trying to protect us, you know, from the outsiders. That's what I always thought.

MS: We're supposed to be the "enemies."

SO: Well, I guess.

MS: Right?

KL: It depends on who was telling the story.

SO: Well, I always thought it was pointed out, but I have read recently it was pointed in.

KL: You thought as a child that it was pointed out to protect you?

SO: Uh-huh.

MS: No, because we're the enemies. They have to make sure we don't get out.

SO: Well, according to Papa, just be glad you're an American, okay.

KL: Did you try to keep your distance from those guards, from those military police, or did you ever try to talk to them?

SO: No, we didn't go talk to them, right?

MS: No, you don't go and chit-chat with them. [Laughs] It was scary. Really scary.

KL: How many towers did you think there were?

SO: One at the gate.

MS: I thought so, too.

SO: Was it at your center that I saw the eight, or was it the Japanese L.A. museum?

KL: I'm not sure. It could have been at both.

SO: I'm like, oh my god, there's eight. So that must have been when I went to your center that I saw that.

AL: Do you remember the searchlights?

KL: At night, lights on the towers?

MS: I think I do.

SO: I remember the blackouts. I mean, it went pitch black.

KL: In Compton?

SO: No.

KL: In Manzanar?

SO: In Manzanar also. "The Japs are coming!" that's what we were yelling as a kid.

KL: In Manzanar?

SO: Yeah, when the lights went out. That's what we were yelling as kids.

KL: Was it a blackout like in Compton where you have to just shut off all your lights?

SO: No, the whole camp went black. I do remember that, do you? Or is it my, something I made up?

MS: Blackout was in Terminal Island.

SO: It was at Manzanar. It was at Manzanar. That's in my mind.

MS: I don't remember any blackouts in Manzanar.

AL: Sometimes the fuses blew.

SO: Oh, okay.

AL: Fuses would blow and everybody would be plunged into darkness. So it may have happened, but it may not have been formally a blackout, it might have been just everything went black.

SO: Okay.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2012 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.