<Begin Segment 13>

RP: Let's talk a little bit more about your camp experience at Tule Lake, and then we'll move on to Chicago.

FY: Okay.

RP: What did you do for work in Tule Lake?

FY: Yes, uh-huh. As I said to you, I was working in the recreation department. And my job was to establish some teenage clubs, so that's what I did. And that was delightful.

RP: Tell us a little bit more about that. What did these clubs participate in?

FY: Yes. And so there were a lot of talented people, and so we had lectures by a lot of these talented people, like physicians and artists. And we had church, we had church there, too, in Tule Lake, and I was teaching Sunday school.

RP: And were the kids receptive to all that you tried to share with them?

FY: Yes. There was a cross, I don't know who put the cross up on the mountain, I remember. And I used to take my Sunday school students up on that little hill, and they used to look up at the cross and they would say, "Is God looking down at us?" I said, "Yes, he's looking down at us and taking care of us."

RP: That was Castle Rock.

FY: Castle Rock, yes. There was, yes, somebody put a cross up there.

RP: How often would you go up there?

FY: Oh, not that often.

RP: That was the, one of the few times you could go out of camp.

FY: Yes, uh-huh. That was sort of a nice thing, 'cause we could go up there and have a sort of picnic-like, you know.

RP: Can you give us an idea of some of the clubs that you helped establish that were in camp?

FY: Yes.

RP: Maybe some of the more colorful names, too?

FY: Oh, what do you mean "colorful names"?

RP: Oh, the names of the clubs.

FY: Oh. No, we didn't have any names, but I remember they used to have dances, and they used to make invitations out of paper. And my younger sister has a collection of those. And the dances were ten cents.

RP: Were there bands, music, live music?

FY: Yes, uh-huh. There were a lot of people who had instruments, and so they established a band, live band.

RP: This would have been sort of a, like swing music of that time?

FY: Yes, uh-huh, that's right. That's right.

KP: Did the band have a name?

FY: I think they did. I can't recall, though. And also, there were some people who knew how to do Japanese dances, so they had program for the Isseis, too.

RP: They did?

FY: Yes, uh-huh.

RP: But your mom, your mom didn't go to those, did she?

FY: Yes, she did, yes. It was remarkable. There was a man, he was very artistic, he took a white piece of material and painted beautiful designs, and made kimonos out of it. The archives have, I think, still has the picture of that.

RP: Did you have any type of Japanese theater at all, like kabuki?

FY: I think they did have that, yes. Because there were a lot of young people who knew how to do Japanese dance as well as perform classical plays.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.