<Begin Segment 14>

KL: So are there other things that you want to include, other memories from your time at Tule Lake?

SK: Oh, having climbed Castle Rock...

KL: You did?

SK: Oh, yeah. So when we go on these pilgrimages, that doesn't appeal to me. People ask me, "Are you going to go to Castle Rock?" I says, "Been there, done that." [Laughs]

KL: Did you go up there repeatedly?

SK: Well, we had to have special permission, we couldn't just go. I remember going at least three times in groups.

KL: One thing I've heard Larisa ask people about Tule Lake that just reminded me, is how you adjusted to a different climate. Did the climate make an impression on you at all?

SK: Well, saw snow for the first time. But interesting thing about it, there were no trees for it to accumulate, and it didn't snow that hard. So I remember sometimes when it did snow and we had to go to the bathroom, so we'd wear geta, so the snow would get caught between the prongs. I remember that.

KL: What did you think of the landscape? You mentioned Castle Rock...

SK: Oh, then, of course, what we used to call Abalone Mountain -- have you been to Tule Lake? Yeah, okay.

KL: I went to one pilgrimage in 2012, so I've been up on Castle Rock.

SK: Oh. Well, you know, dusty, cold. When we go now, it's, of course, during the summers so it's hot and dusty.

KL: Do you have memories attached to nighttime at Tule Lake, or what was night like there?

SK: We kept in sight pretty much, except when we went to the movies. Or we played cards inside, and then we did have a radio. One of the things that we listened to regularly was the Saturday Night Hit Parade. So songs like you've got to "Accentuate the Positive" and "Don't Fence Me In." And I tell people, when I hear that song, it has a different meaning for us. What other song was popular at that time? Oh, "White Christmas."

KL: Was Japanese music a big part of your time in Tule Lake when you were in Japanese school and just in your home, or your barrack?

SK: I don't remember anybody having records, because those kinds of things were left behind or destroyed. So it was afterwards. Some people, I guess, had stored them and had them. A very popular singer was this women called Misora Hibari.

KL: Could you spell her name?

SK: Misora, M-I, sora, S-O-R-A, Hibari, H-I-B-A-R-I, Hibari. During the war, when Tokyo was being bombed, she'd go into the bomb shelters with her family. And she was still a child about my age, and she'd sing to them to keep their spirits up. And when everything was all clear and the war was finally over, they were able to come back up and see the sky, the mother would say something about, "Oh, look at the beautiful sky." And that's how she got this name Misora Hibari, because sora is "sky," and hibari is "skylark." So that's actually not her given name, but her professional name.

KL: Yeah.

SK: And he was very popular, she would go and entertain the troops, the U.S. troops, as well as Japanese people. And she came to the United States to cheer people up, and she went to Hawaii and she did a big concert, three concerts, and donated all her money to the 442nd.

KL: So she was Japanese, though, she was in Japan during the war?

SK: Uh-huh. And she had a very sad life, and I compare her life to Judy Garland, you know, really sad. But she really cheered people up. And recently the Grateful Crane did a show featuring the songs she used to sing. They showed... let's see, they did it in Torrance with a five-hundred seat, sold in two weeks.

KL: Wow, she's still popular.

SK: Yeah. They're coming to San Francisco to do that show on November 21st.

KL: Your mentioning Japan reminded me that I should ask you -- this is another sad topic -- but do you remember learning the news that the U.S. had dropped atomic bombs on Japan where your mother's family was?

SK: Oh, yeah.

KL: What do you remember about that?

SK: They were really concerned, and they were wondering how they could find out about, I guess, again through the Red Cross they found, that's how they found out that they were okay. They couldn't believe it, they were just shaking their heads.

KL: Are there other things related to living at Tule Lake that you wanted to talk about before we move on into the next part?

SK: Well, I think that pretty much covers it.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2015 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.