<Begin Segment 16>

LP: So then in Tanforan, I guess, my main questions were, just for entertainment or just besides playing with your siblings, do you recall anything at Tanforan?

MS: They had a rec. hall and...

ST: Goro Suzuki, right?

MS: They used to have a talent show, and they would have it at the grandstands. Everybody used to go for that.

ST: What's that show he was in later on?

MS: He was in that TV show for quite a while.

ST: Yeah.

MS: I forget. He used to go, he was a professional singer before the war broke out, but then he went by Jack Soo. And he was in a TV comedy for a long time.

ST: Sitcom.

MS: But he was also in the Flower Drum Song, he was in the movie version.

KL: Did you remember him from Tanforan?

ST: Oh, yeah.

MS: He was also dating our sister Tsuki... she was very popular, and he was one of her dates, one of her many dates. [Laughs] And they did keep in touch for quite a while.

KL: What did people do to date in Tanforan? When Tsuki would go out with people, what would they do, where would they go?

MS: I don't know if they had time for much dating or anything in Tanforan. They must have had dances, though, didn't they? Even in that short time?

ST: Don't remember.

MS: You were too young, too.

ST: What do you mean? I was fifteen years old.

MS: Did they have dances?

ST: Huh?

MS: Did they have dances in Tanforan?

ST: Possibly.

KL: Did you go on dates in Tanforan?

ST: No.

MS: He was too shy. [Laughs]

KL: That's like me. So Fred Korematsu was sent to Tanforan after he was released from jail for resisting aspects of Japanese American removal and control. Do you remember hearing Fred Korematsu's name or people talking about that at all?

ST: No.

MS: I don't.

KL: Are there things about Tanforan that you think it's important to record that Larisa or I didn't know to ask about? Anything else that stands out from that time?

MS: I can't think of anything.

ST: There was people living in horse stables.

KL: Were you in any of the horse stables ever?

ST: Well, I visited people.

KL: Yeah, that's what I mean. Would you... we should probably ask you to describe that visit or those visits. What were the horse stalls like?

MS: Very, very tiny. [Laughs]

ST: The smell.

MS: Yeah, the smell was terrible. There was a story about a ghost, remember that?

ST: Ghost?

MS: Yeah, it's by the horse stables. And I guess in Japanese lore there's something about, it's seen as a ball of white? Yeah, they called it a hinotama. There was a story about, they would see it at night, and I guess they decided it was some kind of a ghost, a ghostly image that they were seeing.

ST: Kind of friendly. [Laughs]

MS: Yeah. I don't know if they ever figured out what it was, so I think they did decide it was some kind of a ghostly thing. Or maybe somebody started that just to cause some excitement. I do remember the guys playing baseball out on the racetrack.

ST: Oh, yeah. Well, I used to run around the track.

MS: Yeah, he was always the health freak. He used to make us eat oatmeal when we were little and everything because it was healthy.

KL: Were you involved in organized sports, team sports?

ST: Not really.

KL: But you were a runner?

ST: Oh, yeah. I used to get off the bus on the highway, and it was one mile to the house, and I used to run home.

KL: Yeah, and you were the horse rider, too.

ST: Yeah.

KL: What happened to the horse when you had to leave?

ST: You know, I don't know what happened to it.

MS: I don't know who took the horse.

KL: Did you miss that?

MS: Oh, yeah.

ST: Oh, our farm equipment. What happened to the tractor and everything? I think we just abandoned it. They gave us, what, two weeks to pack up and go.

MS: The cats and dogs, I guess it was the, like the SPCA that did it, right? Because I remember they had the cages on the back of the truck. There was that one cat that we called Blackie, that she used to have babies all the time. And our father tried to get rid of her. And once he took her down near Pacifica area and dumped her off, and she came home. And then the next time, he took her up on Highway 92 and dumped her off, and she came home. And she was a real smart cat. So she'd go up in the hills and she'd bring home little baby rabbits just like it was her own baby, and that's how we had those rabbits in the cage, because she would bring home these baby rabbits. And then once she brought home an adult rabbit, but that one she did kill first. And we could see her coming across the field dragging this rabbit. But she would never eat anything unless she was told she could eat it.

ST: She would eat off the head and leave the body on the doorstep.

KL: How thoughtful.

ST: Oh, yeah.

MS: But after we came out of camp, we made a trip back to kind of look at the farm, and there was a cat that came running down the hill. And she was a calico, and I'm sure it wasn't her, but this cat was a calico and it looked just like her. So I think wherever she was taken, she must have come back again and probably had more babies, because it looked just like her. She was a really smart cat.

<End Segment 16> - Copyright © 2015 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.