<Begin Segment 18>

RP: Wanted to talk a little bit about the "Manzanar riot," or incident that kind of evolved into your experience.

FH: That was a weird thing.

RP: You had some very strong memories, recollections of...

FH: We had a senior outing. It was our senior year. We had a senior outing; we went way out past, I think it was past George's Creek. Is it Saint, is it George's Creek or Saint George?

RP: George's.

FH: George's Creek, okay. It was way out there and we had a great time out there.

RP: What did you do out there?

FH: Oh, we played, ate, played baseball and God knows, I don't know. I remember playing baseball. We just had a fun time away from the confines of a camp, concentration camp like thing, and I think Miss Goldberg's the one that got the permit to get us out there. And we came back. I can't remember, I thought we went in a truck, but I think it was within walking space. And I think I walked back and we walk into camp, camp was so dead quiet. It was dead still and I couldn't understand what was wrong, and when we went for dinner, when we lined up for... everybody's buzz, buzz, buzz, buzzing and they said, "Yeah, there was a, a riot down at the police station, and there were some people that got shot." And then they're having a big get-together or something at Block 21. See, we, our houses were, were heated with oil, and we had this big oil tank on... I don't know whether it was on... I think four blocks had one oil tank that they took the oil out to service the, service the rooms or the bungalows or the barracks. And they said there's a meeting right at the Block 21 oil tank. I think it was 21, maybe it was 20, but anyhow, down from... "So come on down if you wanna hear." And we heard that Fred Tayama got beat up, and I knew who Fred Tayama was, but didn't know him personally. I just knew of him. And he was, they said he was in the hospital. And to find out that my husband saved him.

RP: Tell us about that.

FH: He was in the hospital and he got, the night before he got beat up, and I guess he got beat up quite badly, so he was in the hospital -- well, keep him out of harm's way, too -- and the next morning they had the riot down by the, not the big riot, but the other riot about... I think that was all about, how it came to be was... if Japan invaded United States, who would you take sides with? I don't know what the number of that, whatever it was. And the Kibei people protested that. "How come you want us to stick up for United States after you put us in camp?" Which is logic, too, right? Majority of us, I think, said we would stick up for the United States. And so I think they kinda started it. It just takes a handful to get a bunch going, you know. And so they had that little riot down at the police station, and so they said... I guess they said they thought Fred Tayama was the one that started all this to get this in black and white. So, "Let's go get Fred Tayama." He's up at the hospital. Well, my husband was going around with a girl that was -- this was way before my time because I'm just in high school yet -- and was going around with this girl that worked in the hospital, and he went up there and they got a call saying the riot was going up there. They're coming after Fred Tayama, so the girl says, "You better get him out of where he is," so they told him where he was and then he went in there. He said nobody was in there. It was a empty ward that they kept the beds in, the spare beds. And so he went in there, and he said he went over there. He said somebody was -- no, then they said something about somebody was coming up, injured, so, "Get the bed ready." So he went in there and he couldn't move the bed. He said, "Gee, this is funny," so he looked around to see if it had brakes on it. Fred Tayama was under the bed. He said, "Don't touch me, don't touch me. I don't mean any harm. I..." He says, "You're okay." He said, "I won't do anything to you," because he knew him. He said, "Get under the cover. I'll cover you up and I'll wheel you into the maternity room." So he wheeled him into the maternity room and the, one of the... what is it? Rooms where you, before you deliver... anyhow, they took him in there, and he put him in there and he says, "They're gonna come and get me." He says, "No, they won't come and get you because you're in the... just be quiet and stay in here because it's a maternity room and nobody, they guys won't come in." So as he was walking down the hallway he said these guys came tearing in. He said, "You guys better not go past that. There's a lady in labor, in labor room. A woman in labor, so you better not go past that." So they didn't and they got him out of there before they got a hold of him. So he saved his life. Otherwise they were... but anyhow, the riot was scary. That night -- we lived on the end barrack, room barrack, of the barrack -- and you could see the people. It was a apple orchard and the hospital was on the other side of that apple orchard. And you could see the people just running across. Just people running, going up that way to the hospital, and that might've been when they were going after Fred Tayama. I don't know. I remember that. That was scary. But when you're young you forget right away. Next morning we went, my girlfriend Terry and I, or Ruth and I, we went to Block 18. That's where the whole Tayama clan lived. There, it was all gone. They, overnight, they took 'em all out. Early in the morning. They didn't want them harmed. And I don't know where they... I think Fred Tayama's daughter, who lives right here -- used to live, she passed on -- said they went to Barstow.

RP: If I'm not mistaken, I think they took 'em to Death Valley for a while.

FH: Is it Death Valley? She thought it was Barstow, but she was, like, eleven, so she was quite young.

RP: Yeah, the, all the JACL, JACL people and the people that were considered, you know, inu --

FH: Yeah, that were family wise or whatever... yeah, so when we went up Block 18, we lived in 17, and walked up to 18, it was all vacant. Their slippers and whatever was all there, like, they were there, but it was just dead quiet. Then we went to Block 24 where Slocum lived, do you remember?

RP: Tokie Slocum?

FH: Yeah, and his place was wide open, wide open. The doors were open and everything, like they just left, and we went by there and looked at it. We walked around and looked around; there's quite a few of them that was in that area that was, had gone. What's the other one, Masaoka lived across 23. They were gone.

RP: Togo Tanaka, did you know?

FH: Yeah, but I, we don't know where he was. But the area, in our area, we walked around and they were gone. It was empty. That was scary. Imagine how scary they thought it was, the one that thought they were gonna get, you know... that was...

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.