Densho Digital Archive - Roy Murakami Interview (denshovh-mroy

<Begin Segment 22>

RM: We had a couple directors there that were skinny. But when Ralph P. Merritt come, he really helped the camp a lot. Yeah. Guys couldn't get, you know, we couldn't get milk if you were six year old or older. Only the six years below get the milk. So we have to drink coffee or chocolate. If you get chocolate they... but didn't have with that. And they had all that kind of stuff. There's a lot of dirt under the table over there, too, I think.

RP: What's that?

RM: Dirt under the table. I think there was black marketing and...

RP: Yeah, there, there was a number of people talked about, you know, the administration black marketing meat or sugar.

RM: Yeah, right, and then there's a lot of that around. I heard about it...

RP: You heard about it?

RM: Yeah, but I didn't know where.

RP: Since your father was so, he was connected, he was you say a supervisor or administrator, he had very close ties with the administration. Was he, there was a group, you know, at Manzanar that didn't care for the administration. They were, you know, very bitter and resentful about being in camp.

RM: Oh, yeah. There's two, two or three groups.

RP: Right. And you know, the common term for guys like your dad was "inu."

RM: Right, inu.

RP: Yeah, but he was a judo instructor so that he...

RM: No, well, they tried to pin him down one time. We had 'em, outside the barrack, two of 'em. They were, mostly they were what they called kibei. You know, educated in Japan. And they go straggle in with the six you know and talk to my father about it. But my father, I guess, settled it up for them so they didn't do anything. But, one thing, our block was ready to pounce on 'em if they did anything to him. [Laughs] You know the rock in the sock? That kind of stuff. So it was...

RP: They were ready to come to his defense?

RM: Yeah, yeah. There was that kind of stuff, but not much.

RP: But yeah, so he was approached.

RM: Yeah, he wasn't scared of it, you know.

RP: Uh-huh.

RM: But what started it was, it was the inu, they was all kind of inus, though.

RP: Do you remember anything about the Manzanar "riot" or --

RM: Yeah.

RP: -- the incident.

RM: Two, two of 'em are hit, shot. One was shot in the back and he passed away. And then his uncle got shot in the arm... hip.

RP: Your...

RM: No, not mine. It was Kono, Kono I think it was. It was a long time ago.

RP: Oh, okay. Uh-huh. Where were you that night? Do you recall?

RM: Oh, I was in my room. My father went down to there because there was talking, rioting a little bit. So he went down there and he told me later on that they were rioting and talking big and stuff like that, other guys were... so it got too cold so he went in with some people into the kitchen, one kitchen. And it was warm there so they went in and soon as they went inside, bam, bam, bam. A lieutenant or somebody let go with a Thompson. What they did is probably is that they threw tear gas and then when the riot started they go, "Wah" you know. Got excited. And then that, that just shook this guy up and he let go with a Thompson.

RP: That's what you heard?

RM: Yeah.

RP: Uh-huh. But your father was in the mess hall?

RM: Mess hall.

RP: So did he...

RM: He must have been, he would have been shot if he was in front.

RP: Did he make... so was he trying to sort of mediate the situation or...

RM: Yeah, he had, they made a peace corps, it was like a peace corps.

RP: But that was after the riot.

RM: Yeah.

RP: But during the riot was he also...

RM: No, it was a local stuff so it wasn't, it was supposed to be that way.

RP: So he wasn't mediating before the first shots fired?

RM: He knew about it but there wasn't nobody really... but there was some hotheads that got a group up and started... that's what happened, I guess.

RP: Some of it was about those shortages of food, too.

RM: Probably that and then there's a guy that was...

RP: Guy got beat up?

RM: Yeah, they took them to Lone Pine jail instead of being left in the local jail.

RP: Uh-huh. And then they brought him back. That was Harry Ueno.

RM: Yeah.

RP: They put him in the jail and people wanted him released.

RM: So, that's, that's probably it. But everybody was ready to have a big one if they had it.

RP: You mean a riot?

RM: Oh, yeah. Rock in the sock. [Laughs] Sticks, whatever they had. But they cooled it down.