Densho Digital Archive - Yo Shibuya Interview (denshovh-syo-01-0015)

<Begin Segment 15>

RP: Just to backtrack to Manzanar for a few more questions and then we'll complete our interview. You joined a very, sort of -- I put quotations around the word -- "prestigious" club at Manzanar called the Manza-Knights.

YS: Yeah, I was with them, you know.

RP: How did you get involved with them?

YS: Well a lot of the guys that I knew... well, see like Block 19, 20, and 21... 21 was mostly the guys that, that was like the core of the Manza-Knights. And of course we all hung around together. And when they joined the club we were automatically in, you know, that's, yeah.

RP: And, you guys put on a few parties of your own didn't you?

YS: That's right. I think we used to, at one time we used to put on a Thanksgiving dinner, dinner-dance in camp. And then they even used to do that after they got out in, in L.A. when they relocated back. But of course I was back in Iowa then so I didn't, I didn't participate in any of those, you know, but I think they used to call it the Turkey Trot or something, yeah. But, yeah, they used to do that like every year and they started that in camp.

RP: You had a... Ralph was part of that club.

YS: Yeah, Ralph was.

RP: Do you remember Shy Nomura?

YS: Oh yeah, Shy Nomura, yeah, yeah, Shy. Mary, his wife...

RP: The Songbird.

YS: Yeah, she sang... Mary Kageyama?

RP: Uh-huh.

YS: Is that right? Yeah? Sho passed away, right? Yeah, he had Alzheimer's. He had... 'cause he was also the caretaker at the museum at Independence before he came down with Alzheimer's.

RP: So did Mary ever sing with your band?

YS: I think so. I know she was on those musical programs...

RP: She might have sang for some of Louie's...

YS: Yeah, that's what I was thinking. You know when he wrote that play, I don't know whether she was, she was the main person that, the female singer. And I can't remember who the male singer was. I don't know whether it was Bill, Bill Wakatsuki or... hmm, I can't remember.

RP: Another gentleman I wanted to mention to you who was a Manza-Knight, went on to become a world class animator, Iwao Takamoto?

YS: Oh Iwao, yeah, yeah. He worked for Disney, yeah. When he passed away I, you know... he was the one that started one of the cartoon characters, wasn't he?

RP: Scooby Doo?

YS: Yeah, was it? Yeah. Was it Scooby Doo? Yeah, I know Iwao 'cause he would, at a meeting, Manza-Knight meeting or whatever, he would sit down and just start drawin'. You couldn't believe the way he would draw cartoons. Each movement was... there was a meaning why, why he did that. Yeah, I tell you, quite an artist, that guy. But I think, yeah, somebody, yeah, he went to work shortly after he relocated, got back into Disney, right? And then I don't know, he must have been with Disney until the time he passed away.