Densho Digital Archive - Victor Ikeda Interview (denshovh-ivictor-01-0020)

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RP: Other than, you said that you did play football as well as --

VI: Right.

RP: -- baseball and...

VI: Basketball.

RP: Basketball.

VI: Right.

RP: Football games were... you didn't have too much protection, did you?

VI: Not when we played in camp.

RP: How about... did you play football before in Seattle?

VI: When I was a freshman at Broadway, I played freshman. And what happens is, I think Orientals especially, they mature early. So a lot of them, like my kids, by the time they reached junior high and into sophomore high school, they had attained their full height and weight and all that. So like in freshman, I was playing guard. Now, I never had played that probably by the time I got to be senior because I had not gotten any bigger. So I did play some ball in high school, but that was just freshman ball. But in camp we played, but we put on more clothes so we don't get hurt. [Laughs]

RP: Any padding you had.

VI: Yeah.

RP: And what did you play when you were playing in the leagues in Seattle, baseball? What was your position?

VI: Baseball, I always played out in the field probably. I usually played center field. And when I played basketball, I used to play the forward because I was a little bit taller than the people that played guard, you know. [Laughs]

RP: Yeah. Tell us about some of your best friends that you had growing up.

VI: Oh, we grew up... I had this one friend, we used, he used to walk to high school every day, he'd come and pick me up. I had friends that we played baseball with, we played basketball with. But a lot of our close friends really got close was when we were in camp and we were together day in and day out. Then we got real close. And of course, they were friends that we knew in Seattle, but they may not have been our next door neighbor type of friends that we played around with.

RP: Camp gave you the opportunity to get to know people.

VI: Right.

RP: Better than you had.

VI: Because at least when we were still in Seattle you had family, so a lot of the activities revolved around the family. You'd go to camp, you don't really have the family, so you have groups. So you have friends in camp and friends in the army that you get very close to 'cause you live together day in and day out.

RP: Other than sports in high school, were you involved in any other clubs or other activities?

VI: Not too much because I was only a freshman. I was just going into sophomore year, so when you look at our high school annual, some other friends, older friends were very involved in all sorts of activities, but being a freshman, you just get to know what high school is all about. So I didn't get too involved in high school when I was in Seattle. And then when we got to high school in camp, I hate to say it, but it was kind of like a joke, so... [laughs].