Densho Digital Archive - Roy Murakami Interview (denshovh-mroy

<Begin Segment 25>

KP: Can I backtrack just a little bit? After the riot, I know they closed down the schools. Did they close down the judodojo as well? Or, do you remember?

RM: No, that dojo was after, I think.

KP: But I mean...

RP: They never stopped the dojo. It was always allowed to continue. Never a threat to...

RM: No, Ralph, Ralph P. Merritt was the boss so...

RP: He might have stood up for...

RM: Yeah, he stood up for I think most Japanese stuff.

RP: 'Cause he had been in Japan and that was always the...

RM: So...

RP: Hm.

RM: He knew about it.

RP: Uh-huh. So there were, there were some times early on in the camp where the judo exhibitions, or the tournaments, actually out drew the, the baseball competitions.

RM: Oh yeah.

RP: I mean, that's how popular judo got. So there was quite a few young Nisei boys, too, that came?

RM: They, it was encircling the whole open area where you could see.

RP: Uh-huh. That's where the spectators would...

RM: They would slide the door back and that whole... and then that was open, wide open.

RP: Were tickets sold to these...

RM: No, no.

RP: Anybody could come.

RM: Anybody could come see.

RP: Uh-huh. How about your uniforms? Tell us how you got your, your gis.

RM: Well, women about the, around the people that did the sewing, stuff like that, they made 'em out of the straw, straw mattresses.

RP: Oh, the canvas?

RM: Uh-huh. Looks good. I mean, if you've seen one now you couldn't just spot, tell the difference. They got the little stitches in it and everything.

RP: They did the belts and everything?

RM: Everything, yeah.

RP: You don't happen to have one of those?

RM: No, I would, I would have give it to you if I could find one. I don't know where that is now. It's been fifty years now. I guess it's rotted.

RP: That's a great exercise in recycling. Those old mattress covers. Huh. Interesting.

RM: We wondered where it came from. That's what they... they sewed 'em together. I guess they sold 'em too, but it was for the price then you got into a good dojo, I mean, good uniform.

RP: Now, the dojo was built right up against another small building which was the shower area or the...

RM: Office building, office, and shower, and dressing room. Most of them come into the dressing room. Most of 'em come from home so they just walked it.

RP: Walked right into the dojo?

RM: Uh-huh.

RP: But there was a shower area, too?

RM: Yeah.

RP: Uh-huh. And an office? Is that where your father...

RM: Yeah that's, I think that became the peace committee office later on, too.

RP: Yeah.

RM: But that's the office that everybody, they kept records about the throws and I guess people.

RP: Oh, the different ranks and designations and... so the record, there were records kept about that.

RM: So they know that they got it, their records...

RP: Certified. If anybody asks later on after camp, okay here's our, you know, records.

RM: I think they're all gone. I don't know who got 'em.

RP: Uh-huh.