<Begin Segment 8>

RP: So what did, what did you girls do for fun when you were growing up in your earlier years?

NN: Before camp?

RP: Before camp.

AF: Well, school mainly, so we didn't have much of a social life.

KT: I remember our schedule was going to school, grammar -- or not grammar school, but going to school, then we would meet at, stay at, meet at the corner where the bus, Japanese school bus would pick us up and take us to Japanese school. And then they would... I can't remember about coming home, how we got home.

AF: There was a bus.

NN: Quickly, school, the community center would have various activities, and they would also have church festivals, things like that. And I don't know if you've all been to the festivals, you know, Ondo and things like that. Did you go?

AF: Oh, yeah. I think so, can't remember too much.

NN: I was too young.

AF: Yes, she was just a little baby then.

RP: Nancy, did you get into this Japanese dancing before going to camp?

NN: No, not at all. While we were interned, there were, for the young people there were the Sierras or the jazz Jive Bombers, or they had these high school plays or these dances for the younger people, and so I feel that it was the older Isseis and some of the older Niseis who had been trained in Japan as well as some of the Niseis and some of the Isseis that were trained before being interned. They learned their skills in playing the shamisen, the Japanese instruments, or dancing. So when they got into camp, I noticed that with the activities for the young people, there were quite a few. But eventually, some of the other Isseis would start having small classes teaching dancing, and they were the contemporary type as well as the classical types. And so there were a few of these groups starting out, and that's where my mother had, had me enrolled. But I only, I had three teachers within that short period of time while we were incarcerated, but what they would do is with their students they would have these programs, like the recitals, and during that time they didn't have the auditorium, this huge auditorium at the very beginning. So what they would do is utilize the --

KT: Barracks.

NN: -- the mess halls. They would clear out the tables and benches and make a small room for the stage. And they would have the performers, students perform. And I found it quite ingenious of some of these Isseis and some of these older Niseis. Because with the limited sources that they had for costumes and things like that, there were a few people who did bring some of their kimonos and things like that, and, or some Japanese instruments. So when they would perform certain kinds of dances that were period or you have certain kind of, needing a certain kind of costume, they had to improvise. And so they would utilize certain kinds of materials that they brought in from, you know, from the outside, and they would sew it up. Or else the men would build props out of wood or paper. And you'll see some of the -- I think I may have a picture of some of the props that were made, that I utilized. But then, so, they were very resourceful and very creative.

And so they were able to -- and there was this man who was in the theater arts previously, I think probably in Japan, too, as well as out here. But when he was incarcerated here, in Manzanar, they, a lot of the people didn't have that kind of a makeup, and he had the supplies and he knew how to put the certain kinds of makeup that the character needed for a particular dance. And so he was Mr. Tanaka, and you would not speak back to him. It would be horrible if you had that tan when you were in the desert and you were always in the sun. Because that white, it's supposed to be a white porcelain skin, but with the tan, it turns out sort of grayish. [Laughs] So he used to get on us every so often. But he would do the makeup. But he also was very learned in some of the stage dramas. And so toward the end, he did put on some plays, and I have some pictures of him. And, but there was also this... some other couples that, who... I can't remember their names. But I believe they were, they were in their seventies, I believe. And they had worked in the movie industry out here for the silent movies at one time. And so I think Anna May Wong was it, or Sessue Hayakawa or something like that, where they needed certain kinds of period outfits or things, they would help out. So there was --

RP: They were in camp, too?

NN:-- they were a source of helping out with some of that.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.