Densho Digital Archive - Henry Nishi Interview II (denshovh-nhenry

<Begin Segment 14>

RP: Do you have any recollections of the Manzanar "riot" or incident where...

HN: Yeah, I knew that it happened, yeah. We saw it happen and we knew it was going on. Out of curiosity we, we tried to run down there to see what was happening. We didn't know what it was going, what it was all about. At least I didn't know what it was all about, but there was this confrontation where it was some of these guys who were, for whatever reason, they were up in arms.

RP: Some of the tensions and the anger was directed at people that had been called inu, collaborators, some of 'em were Japanese American Citizens League presidents, other people who were seen kind of as stooges for the administration. So were you aware of any of that, these political rivalries that were going...

HN: There was, yeah.

RP: Or were you somewhat...

HN: I think in general, the people, we thought of them as, they were younger Japanese-born persons.

RP: Kibei.

HN: Kibei, yeah.

RP: And what was your relationship with them? Did you kind of stay away from them or...

HN: We kind of did, yeah, we kind of stayed away from those people.

RP: They were different in your eyes?

HN: What's that?

RP: They were different in your eyes than, you know, Niseis that hadn't gone to Japan or... like yourself.

HN: Yeah, just a natural, you know, when you associate with people, you associate with people that, more of your, what you're willing to associate with. And I think that Nisei people and Kibei people, they, it wasn't, there was no real reason for them to be, or anyone to be against them or for them. But, yeah, there wasn't too much mingling between the two groups. Unless, you know, they were close friends. 'Course, we had Kibeis and Niseis in our block. We all got along well.

RP: Do you remember, you said you lived in Block 22, do you remember a gentleman by the name of Harry Ueno?

HN: Ueno?

RP: Ueno, Harry?

HN: No. Harry Ueno. I've heard of the name yeah.

RP: He started that garden in Block 22.

HN: Oh, yeah.

RP: And he was, again...

HN: Did he live in that block? I don't think I...

RP: I think he worked in that mess hall.

HN: Yeah, I don't think he was, he wasn't, he didn't live in Block 22. Most people in Block 22, I can remember the names of the people that lived there. And I don't remember him living there. 'Cause our, I don't know how it was in other blocks, but our block, Block 22 was a block that was, we had people from west L.A., we had people from Santa Monica, we had people from the valley, and we had the group from downtown, the Boyle Heights. And it was a block where, the people wound up in Block 22 because, like in our case, we had too big of a group and they couldn't put us with the rest of the west L.A. people, so they put us in Block 22. And I think that's what happened with other people from, like, San Fernando, 'cause they were kinda, didn't fit in with the blocks where they were supposed to go to. And I don't know how the downtown people got... I think they were just spillover from another block where most of the downtown people came. And then we had... so there was a mixture. But we got along pretty good together. We were kind of a tight group, Block 22.