Densho Digital Archive - Victor Ikeda Interview (denshovh-ivictor-01-0038)

<Begin Segment 38>

RP: Tell us a little bit about the OT club in Minidoka. You guys really kind of formed a bond...

VI: Yeah, what had happened is a couple of our friends' parents were the chief cook and the cooks at this Block 5. We lived in Block 7 and some people lived in Block 6 and some in Block 3. Some lived higher, but we kind of started eating there, because you kind of eat with your friends. And the cooks tolerated it, 'cause usually it's rationed out that you get so much for your block. And the people in Block 5 seemed to tolerate us, I guess they didn't complain. So we started, you know, as a group from "Camp Harmony" getting together, and then as your sports season began, we became more of a sports club. So then it became closer, and that's the way it kind of formed the OTs. We had a... the, we had about ten members when we first started out, but as we played ball, it got bigger and bigger, so it was a pretty big organization, sports organization by the time the sports season rolled around, 'cause we had two softball teams, the A team and the B team that played ball. Of course, we played cards, and I think Mr. Kaseguma must have told you how we'd be playing cards and the older guys would make us go to school. [Laughs] So they tolerated us and they took, kind of took care of us. And the parents, in a situation like that, they don't worry too much of where you are 'cause you can't be too many places and get into trouble. And we were pretty good at sports, and we had some pretty good-looking guys in our group, very cocky, so all of a sudden one of the guys started to say, "Yeah, well, we'll be OTs." And I told you, I don't have to go any further. [Laughs] And we kind of kept it a secret because we didn't think it'd be proper to let people know what we thought about ourselves. So they always ask us, "What's the OTs?" "Well, we're oldtimers," or something. And it was kind of funny, we developed kind of a, being like a gang, quite a reputation. So that once we, one harvest, we went out to Berkeley, and there were some younger girls that were going out to pick potatoes, too, and they heard that the OTs were going to be out there, and they were worried sick. [Laughs] But we treated 'em real well, so they says they were never treated as well. So now, when we come to reunions like this, they remember us from the Oakley days, which sometimes we forget. But it was very competitive sport-wise.

RP: There were other, other groups of kids that organized their own events, too.

VI: Right. Because of the way that the camp was located, along the canal, you had a breaking point about one, two, three, four times in the camp. One broke at about Block 7, 11, 12 it stopped, and it started off at 12, 13, and that area, a lot of it was the people from the farming areas, the valley. So Block 16 was a very prominent group that, good ball players. And up around Block 30, they had the Portland people, and they were, had a very good athletic program, ball team. And you have some in between. So there was about eight, eight teams in our league for softball, but it probably landed up that there were only three that were very competitive. And it got to a point where it became very, very competitive between us and the people from Block 16, which was from the valley. In fact, it got so competitive, it got kind of competitive with girls, too. At one time, one of our fellows was going with a girl that was going with a guy in Block 16, so they got in this big argument and they had a, almost had a fight, we had to break it up. But like gangs, it's, "Okay, we'll meet you people at the movie theater at eight o'clock," or something. So word got around that there's going to be a big fight. So of course our friends heard about it so they came, and we went to the movie, we came out, and the Block 16 people were there. But what had happened was we had enough friends with us that they looked us over and I don't think they wanted to fight us, so a couple of 'em got together and jawboned it out. But we had some people in our group that came up from Tule Lake, you know, and they had quite a reputation because they were from California with the zoot suits and the whole bit. When you compare that, probably a lot of 'em went to Manzanar. In the Northwest, they didn't wear zoot suits, they wore the straight pants and the short hair. So, and when they joined us, I think Block 16 didn't want to tangle with us anymore. [Laughs] But it was very competitive. We'd play softball against them. We also played football against them, couple of games. And it'd be tackle football, but we wore heavy, more clothes, and we'd get a skullcap, and that was our equipment.

RP: This was, was it... one of our interviewees this morning mentioned stuffing clothes in...

VI: Oh, in your shoulder pads? Yeah.

RP: So you would just play out in the firebreaks?

VI: No, we had this, we played baseball, but it was also, you could play football. So it was a regular football field.

RP: Was the football organized, or was it just kind of pick up?

VI: Just kind of a pick up. "We'll play you people against ours." We got all the biggest people we could find, and so they did the same thing, and we'd play a couple of times.