<Begin Segment 8>

RP: You said early on that you were kind of a quiet, shy person. Did you start to open up a little in Manzanar in terms of, you know, seeking out new friends and...

MN: Uh, not really. I've always been, well, I guess I was always pretty quiet until I got to know you or until you got to know me. And then I would have very few... in fact, all my life I've always had one special good, best friend. And then, you know, a group of other close friends. But I just found in the last maybe ten, fifteen years that I've just, I don't know, just become more, more open and I... in fact, my mother, I think my mother said she was like that. I've always thought she was such an outgoing person, able to talk to anyone, making friends with anyone. But then when I mentioned it she would say no, she was very shy when she was young. So maybe the same thing is happening with me. But...

RP: Well, the last, these two days you're here for the Manzanar high school reunion, and maybe you could share with us some of your memories of school at Manzanar. Teachers or social experiences, friends that you met there. How that, you know, sort of resonate with this gathering.

MN: Well, we were... like I said, I only had a few close friends. So we had this little group, you know, of girls. I mean, everybody was in a group. And...

RP: Did your group have a name?

MN: Yeah. [Laughs] Oh you're gonna laugh at this. We were the Wee Funsters, W-E-E Funsters. But, then later we just dropped the "wee." But to this day there are a group of girls. They call themselves the Funsters. They're... of the ones that were in camp, there are only, well actually the last few years I haven't been involved all the time with them, but there are three girls that were in camp. And as the years went by, our friends would change. We would, you know, be in different locations and so there have been different groups of girls. But the name has just carried on. And the last few years, the last group has been meeting for lunch like once a month or once every two months. And, and...

RP: That's really amazing. That's sixty-seven years ago.

MN: Yeah. But, you know, all the older, older ones from camp don't know any of the younger ones that were all... well, not that, not that they're that much younger, but the newer members that came from different, different places. Like when we came out of camp there were some that we picked up at UCLA. And then after that there were other friends depending on where we were living, where some of the older ones were living and we had friends and that's how it, how it changed. But there's...

RP: So what did the Funsters do for fun?

MN: Oh, just whatever any young, young group of girls do, you know. Yeah.

RP: Did you date in camp at all or go to dances with guys and how was, was that awkward for you?

MN: Yeah, I didn't, I didn't date much, no. Some of my friends had steadies and... but me, I didn't have, I didn't date too much. But...

RP: So who were the handsome guys in camp?

MN: Oh gosh. [Laughs]

RP: The Manza-Knights?

MN: Oh yeah, oh yeah. We were, we were close to them. Well, I mean some of the boys clubs and the girls clubs would have parties together, yeah. So, we were close to the Manza-Knights. We'd know most of them. And...

RP: Kow Maruki?

MN: Kow, yeah. In fact, he coached us. He and others, you know we were involved in volleyball, softball, basketball, and so one time or another he was one of our coaches. Yeah. Oh, in fact, so was Shi Nomura. He was a coach of ours one time. He's a Manza-Knight, too. Yeah.

RP: Do you remember any, anything about Iwao Takemoto? A gentleman who was in the Manza-Knights?

MN: Iwao Takemoto...

RP: He became a, you know, a famous animator for Walt Disney.

MN: Yeah, I know the name. Yeah, I think... yeah, I didn't know him personally. Yeah, but I know the name, yeah.

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