<Begin Segment 9>

RP: Another gentleman that was, you know, kind of noticed and recognized just because he was a little different, not being a Japanese, was Ralph Lazo.

MN: Oh, Ralph Lazo, yeah. Yeah, I know him. Everybody knew Ralph. Yeah.

RP: What did Ralph mean to the camp?

MN: Well at the time we all just assumed that he was, that he must have had some part Japanese blood, that he was from, from the orphanage. And it wasn't until years later that we found out different. And it was, it was amazing. Yeah.

RP: A lot of people last night were talking about one particular teacher, Louis Frizzell.

MN: Oh, yeah. He was our favorite.

RP: What made him so popular with kids?

MN: I don't know. He was just... he was just a friendly, just so friendly and he was more like a friend than a teacher. I remember when we came out of camp, he, he was living in Eagle Rock. And, I mean we went to, we went to his house and I remember him... I was living in Sierra Madre at the time, and I remember he drove me home. He had a, what do you call one of those Ford, Ford Model A's, the one with the rumble seat. And I think he drove me home in that. But he... I guess because he was so young. He wasn't much older than we were. I think he was just out of college when, when he came to camp. And he, I think he was a classmate or a he had known Gregory Peck, I think.

RP: Oh, that's right. Who was it? Who was I talking to? I think it was Henry Nakano, was talking about the rivalry between Louis Frizzell who was from UCLA and Gregory Peck who was from University of California.

MN: Oh, oh.

RP: And they kind of tried to outdo each other, maybe acting-wise or...

MN: Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah.

RP: You mentioned earlier, you were talking about your father's nursery during the wartime when you were at Manzanar that there were some business issues with the second owner of the nursery.

MN: Oh. Of the manager, yeah.

RP: Did he, did your father lose money as a result of this, of the situation during the war there?

MN: I think so. Because I think a lot of those letters were involved in his asking for more money to run the business. And I, if I remember correctly, I think my mother and father cashed out their life insurance policies to raise money. And, I don't know.

RP: Was there the perception that this man was fleecing your parents?

MN: Yeah, I think so. Yeah. But, but to my personal knowledge, I don't know. It was all stuff that my, my older brother and sister, you know, did the paperwork for my dad.

<End Segment 9> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.