<Begin Segment 20>

TI: So let's, let's go back to you at Shelby. What was Shelby like when you got there? Who was there?

GS: There were still some Hawaiians that, with the cadre, cadremen and headquarters, who were still in Camp Shelby. And so we joined them there, and even when we got there, we still had a few conflicts with Hawaiians because of pidgin English, couldn't talk. Because when the first, Camp Shelby was formed, we better go back to Camp Shelby when the mainlanders, the volunteers within...

TI: Right, and they called them kotonks.

GS: Kotonks, and they called them...

TI: And then the Buddhaheads.

GS: We called them buta, butaheads. We called them "pigheaded," but they changed it to Buddhahead. [Laughs]

TI: Buta meaning...

GS: Pig.

TI: ...being "pig" in Japanese.

GS: Pigheaded, we called them pigheaded. But they changed, finally changed it to just Buddhahead, Buddhist. 'Cause most of 'em spoke Japanese all the time, half-Japanese, Hawaiian-English combination.

TI: Right, and so that friction that happened, you're saying was still there when you, even when you still got there.

GS: I said, "What are you guys talking about? 'You go, come back, bombai, come back, you stay, you come, I come.' What are they talking about?" "You stay here, we're gonna go someplace, and we'll be back later." But instead of saying that, they got a little English, they got a little Japanese in it, and they got a little Hawaiian in it.

TI: Portuguese, probably.

GS: Portuguese. So we couldn't understand what they were talking about. Hawaiians knew what they were talking about, but mainlanders didn't know what they were talking about.

TI: So how did you get along with the Hawaiians?

GS: I got along fine because in Redlands, there was a, University of Redlands, they had exchange students from Hawaii. One of the boys, Charlie Nakamura, came to the house. And so he first saw us and then he came up and then he, Japanese, okay, 'cause after that he started coming to the house all the time while he was in Redlands. And then so his pidgin English and everything, so he would even bring some Indian, got from India, and we would make Indian food and stuff like that. But that's, so I was able to communicate a little pidgin English with them. So they thought I was from, they wanted to know what island I was from. [Laughs]

TI: So you were, that's good. So, so the experience of meeting Hawaiians was part of Camp Shelby.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.