<Begin Segment 19>

KP: A couple questions about being there at the riot. The soldiers were on one side of the street and the rest of the people on the other side --

IK: Yes.

KP: Okay, so then about fifteen feet difference between the two.

IK: There were... yeah, it was a country road across the street. It was at twenty feet, thirty feet, whatever. It's not very far.

KP: And the Kibei were shouting primarily in Japanese. Did you hear...

IK: I think it was just the, as it comes out in... it sounds as though it were the Kibei, 'cause I didn't understand the language enough, and they made the big noise and they were the only gathered group that I knew of. There was no gangs and such, which later formed in camp, like any civilization. But it's... they were the only group, so that does... and I think of that today, not then.

KP: It was also, one of the stories was about a truck that crashed somewhere right around the beginning of the shooting, and you, were you aware of that at all?

IK: I just knew the one they shot through.

KP: The one you were gonna get in?

IK: Yeah, that's the only truck I know that was even...

KP: Where was that truck parked? Do you remember?

IK: Right at, on our side. Right next to a barrack.

RP: Would that be the administration barrack?

IK: The truck would've been on our side, at least.

RP: You were on the administration side of the...

IK: No, that was across the street, 'cause I know the jail was across the street and the administration was off to the right. The primary administration, or the... yeah, the administrators and such, so the only building I can think of is, would be the police...

RP: Station.

IK: House, which was... it's, that's all I can think of.

KP: And the military were lined up by the police station?

IK: No, it was by the side of it, or where, I don't know where the front was. It was just one of the, they're all barracks, so there was a barrack running opposite of the -- oh no, it was the same direction as all of our barracks.

KP: And one other question was the guns that opened, just started shooting... later of course, you went in the 442nd and probably became very familiar with the weapons and the sound of it. What weapons were being fired? Do you know?

IK: Had to be 0.3s, single shot or both action.

KP: Some people say there was machine gun fire, but you didn't...

IK: No machine gun fires. It's, it was a little peanut poppin' 0.3s.

RP: No bursts, no...

IK: No bursts, 'cause those are in the towers. They didn't have any down level, 'cause if they'd shot a... I'm surprised that they only caught one with, if it was one bullet. Because one bullet, bullet would easily penetrate three bodies.

KP: How many, how many shots did you recall?

IK: I don't know, just a few. It wasn't any big, big... the whole place opening up, 'cause they would've killed a lot of people.

RP: Do you remember other bodies lying on the street as you...

IK: No, I would've taken off the other way.

RP: Just headed out.

IK: Yeah.

RP: Do you remember... again, going back to this historical account of the riot, there was... as people gathered and there was yelling and screaming and whatever, supposedly the MPs fired off tear gas grenades to try to scatter everybody.

IK: I didn't see any. I didn't see any. I think after the shooting stopped, I was probably, more people were probably about a barrack away, the length of a barrack back into the, deeper into the camp.

RP: So every, once the shots were fired everybody scattered out and, and it... you're saying that they just moved away a little ways?

IK: No, they scattered. Yes, and I happened to be near the guys that were yelling and that's when I heard, "Let's get Tanaka," or whoever it was. And that seemed odd that they would start going after somebody after the unplanned shooting. So anyway, it was, the emotions were up or whatever's the... the place is alive now, and so that's when the, this group started for the, the other group that they were looking for, which had to be the Kibeis, I guess, 'cause they spoke the Japanese, and as they, as I found out they were the same guys that I knew, only with the, they now had bands around their head, forehead.

RP: They did?

IK: Which is kind of strange for that time, or characteristic.

RP: Do you, do you know any of the names of those men that were in that group?

IK: No. No, I didn't want to know. I know them by sight. I met one much later in a party, and I smiled 'cause he went to hide. He, he pretended he was drugged out, and I knew why he was gone.

RP: Right. There were about twenty-six men that were rounded up after, after the incident, or riot, and sent away. They were, they were labeled as the troublemakers or the people who...

IK: Oh, then I would wonder if they were the Kibeis then.

RP: And most of 'em weren't Kibeis, and I'll give you a list of the, the...

IK: I wouldn't know their names. I'd know their face, well, their young faces.

RP: Just, just as a information for you. So they went, they were taken out and some of those guys might have been...

IK: Well it sure sounds, sounds like it.

RP: They never saw Manzanar again.

IK: I'll be darned. That's...

RP: And the one guy that your were talking about, the cook, was the... well, however he ended up, he was in the jail there, and then he was taken out to...

IK: Out of camp?

RP: Out of camp, yeah. He was in the county jail for a while.

IK: Oh, that, that's, that sure needs looking into, 'cause I, none of us believe... it can't be, 'cause it, it wasn't that long that camp being started. Why would they let a Japanese person go, sell sugar?

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2009 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.