Densho Digital Archive - Henry Nakano Interview (denshovh-nhenry-01-0020)

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RP: This is tape two of our continuing interview with Henry Nakano. Henry, you said that Arnold Maeda, who was also involved in the drama class...

HN: Yes he was. I think he was in that Loud and Clear. If I'm not mistaken, he was in it. Yeah.

RP: That Louie Frizzell's father gave him the words to, to a lot of the songs?

HN: Well, somebody, either his father or somebody related to the Frizzells gave all the things to Arnold and Arnold gave 'em all to Bruce. So I think Bruce has 'em now. But I'm not sure. But Bruce doesn't have the music. There was no music that went along with it. So maybe I'd better go see Bruce and try to put the music to the words.

RP: Yeah.

HN: If I can remember 'em. That's gonna be somewhat of a chore I think. Except I like music, too, so...

RP: So Louie really brought a lot of life to your, to your lives.

HN: To the school. He brought a lot of life to the whole school really. He made us all independent actors I guess. And singers.

RP: Yeah.

KP: Can I ask a couple questions about camp? First one is there was a, there was kendo in the camp. But by that time you weren't involved in it anymore? Or did you have any interest in doing that?

HN: No, I wasn't involved in kendo anymore 'cause the teachers that I was taking it from weren't at that camp. It was a different set of teachers.

RP: Do you know if your kendo instructors had been picked up and taken by the FBI?

HN: He was picked up, right, as soon as the war broke out.

RP: What was his name again?

HN: Shimo.

RP: Shimo.

HN: Yeah. In fact, an interesting story is Cedrick Shimo, which is his son, he was a UCLA graduate in 1940. And he went to Berkeley for his master's degree when the war broke out. And he was at Berkeley going to school and his father was picked up as soon as the war broke out. And so he was at Berkeley trying to go to school, in school and his mother was, and he was an only child, the mother was left alone here in Boyle Heights. So then he tried to get home from Berkeley and he couldn't get a bus ticket, couldn't get any transportation home. He had to hitchhike all the way home from Berkeley to get home. And, his story is a very unique story, too. In fact, he's printed quite a bit of his story. I don't know if you know his story or not. You've looked it up? Cedrick Shimo? His story about that he was in service, got drafted, was MIS. And then he became a conscientious objector because he didn't, because his dad was, you know, incarcerated and he got sent, he was American citizen, got drafted. And got treated this way. His dad was treated another way and he didn't think it was right. And so they sent him to a special engineering corps in the middle of the country for Japanese American objectors. I'm not too sure about... my story is not really good 'cause I don't know the story. But, so that's all I know about Cedrick's story. He's got one hell of a story to tell.

KP: The other question I had was your interest and your brother's interest in model planes.

HN: Uh-huh.

KP: At Manzanar I know there was a model plane club. Were either of you involved in that?

HN: I don't... no, we weren't involved in that. 'Cause our folks didn't have much money. So it took money to buy model airplanes, even in camp, even if you buy 'em in catalogs and things. And, you know, they were making, what, twelve dollars a month? And so, you can't live on twelve dollars a month. Well, you can't do any extra-curricular activities. So as far as I know, I was too young to know any better, I guess.

RP: Did you know of the club in Manzanar?

HN: I knew about the club, yes.

RP: Wingnuts?

HN: Yeah.

RP: Uh-huh.

HN: But my brother never got involved in it. And I guess he couldn't afford it or whatever.