<Begin Segment 22>

RP: What did you do for the social life there? Did you, you said you went to movies.

TI: Yeah, we had movies now and then and I don't know of anything else.

RP: How about dancing? Were you a dancer?

TI: I didn't dance so I don't know a thing about that.

RP: How about girls? Did you date at all?

TI: Well, you know, they were quite free but I just stuck with the fellows, yeah.

RP: Now, most of the Terminal Island community went to Manzanar.

TI: Manzanar, yes.

RP: Were there any other Terminal Islanders that ended up at Gila?

TI: There might have been, yes, but I can't recall who they were.

RP: So you kind of had to make some new friends didn't you?

TI: Oh, yeah.

RP: The store sounded like a good outlet for that.

TI: Yeah. But everybody made friends, especially living in the same block.

RP: Do you remember your block, particularly outside, do you remember gardens or other efforts to sort of improve the block?

TI: I don't remember anything like that. I think they, I think they tried to put in a swimming pool if I'm not mistaken.

RP: In your block?

TI: Yeah, but I don't think it succeeded. I never heard much of it but there was a talk you know.

RP: What do you remember about the food in your mess hall?

TI: Well, I thought the food was good. Food was good and it was ample. Yeah. At least they had a lot of rice. That's our main staple, huh.

RP: Did you ever see any fish at all there?

TI: I... no, I don't remember. They had some fish in the store that, you know, we ran, yeah. I don't know how they ever got those fishes but... I think it was once a week that they sold fish.

RP: Did you play any baseball at Gila?

TI: I tried. But I'm no good at it so it didn't last very long.

RP: Because, boy, Gila was a real, boy, they had some big names in the Japanese American baseball annals.

TI: Oh yeah, uh-huh, I think from what was that, Central California or around...

RP: Fresno or...

TI: Fresno, Guadalupe, yeah. I think Guadalupe had a good team there.

RP: Remember a guy by the name of Zen Omura?

TI: Zen Omura, yeah, he and his son. He had or two sons I think playing for him.

RP: A pretty nice baseball stadium from what I, what I've heard about that.

TI: Gosh, I don't recall how, how.... Zen Omura, he's from around, what, Fresno area, is he? Yeah, I think he was quite a, quite a baseball player. He was organizer I think.

RP: Now your big interest that, well, before your left Terminal Island, was kendo. Was there a, a continuation of kendo in Gila River?

TI: Yeah, they had kendo but that's the one thing you have to have equipment, and I didn't have anything so I just stayed away. You know, you need the armor to, for your body and most of all you need a bamboo sword and that's not easy to get. And it breaks often.

RP: You can't order that from the Sears and Roebuck catalog.

TI: No, I guess not.

RP: Yeah.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.