Densho Digital Archive - John Young Interview (denshovh-yjohn-01-0025)

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KL: We talked a little bit about Hikoji Takeuchi. Were there any other people that you remember vividly from your time in Manzanar that you palled around with or you knew from before the war?

JY: No, we didn't get too intimate with anybody, just casual. Say hello, play ball, play ball with a bunch of old men. No, not really. Hikoji, it's just that I went to school with him, that's the reason he was in our same class, summer of '41, Lincoln High School. You know, the other fellow's name I can't remember, kind of a tall fellow.

KL: Do you remember in Manzanar any other people who were not Japanese American but were there with their spouses?

JY: Yeah, just a girl, June Low... yeah, that's the only one, but I heard there was another one. June was a friend of my sister's, she was about five years older than I was, that's the only reason I knew of her.

KL: Do you know what her married last name was?

JY: Well, she was married to Ossie, I don't remember his last name. He was a Japanese fellow, but he used to hang around with Chinese, my brothers and all that. So we always had interracial buddies, because my brother had a meat market down on Tenth and San Pedro, so he knew a lot of produce people.

RM: Did you ever hear about a Caucasian woman named Elaine Yoneda living in Manzanar?

JY: No, I heard of it, yes, but I never met her. There was quite a few of us in there.

KL: Did you hear ever of anyone who was African American who was in Manzanar?

JY: Yeah, there was a little boy there, poor kid, they called him Joe Lewis. He was half Japanese and half black. The kids used to pick on him, I remember.

RM: Do you know where he lived?

JY: No. He lived on the other side of the firebreak. The 1 through 12 is on one side, and 12 through 24 is on this side, I think, of the firebreak, in between all the latrine, things like that. They had some stores and all that.

RM: Do you know if his parents or if the kid that got teased and called Joe Lewis, do you know if his parents were in Manzanar with him?

JY: I don't know which one was black or which one was Caucasian or Japanese. Yeah, but there was one boy, like she was saying, they called him Joe Lewis.

RM: Well, we have a lot we would love to ask you. We recognize that you're family's coming to celebrate your birthday, so we want to let you prepare for that. But I just wanted to ask if there's anything that you would like to share with us that I've completely overlooked or that Kristen forgot to ask, either about your time in Manzanar or World War II, anything?

JY: Not really, not really. A sad part of my life I try to forget, the happy part, I'd like to remember that. Like a happy marriage, and I met a friend that I've known for over seventy years, I didn't even know the kids were adopted. My daughter works in ER in Glendale, I figure... never found out. She's got two daughters that are doctors, the son was a baby doctor, but he's turning his life around, he wants to be in music, a musician. I had a woman dentist the same way, she's quitting that to become a lawyer. I said, "Why are you quitting this?" Tired of looking at people's mouths for twenty years. [Laughs]

RM: Did you hear in 1992 that Manzanar was established, authorized as a National Historic Site?

JY: Not really. I never went back there. No hindsight on that at all.

RM: What do you think about the fact that... well, both Kristen and I work for Manzanar now, and we get about 80 thousand visitors per year. What do you think about that?

JY: I think it's great that somebody remembers. I was part of it and I don't want to remember. There's nothing to remember about it.

RM: Is there anything you would like us to share with visitors or to tell them?

JY: Not really.

RM: What about your wife? What do think she would think that Manzanar is a National Historic Site?

JY: We never talked about it. We even shocked ourselves when we think that our daughter was born there.

RM: All right, John. I want to say thank you very much, both on behalf of myself and Kristen, it was a real job to spend this time talking to you on your birthday. And thank you on behalf of Manzanar National Historic Site.