Densho Digital Archive
Manzanar National Historic Site Collection
Title: Yo Shibuya Interview
Narrator: Yo Shibuya
Interviewer: Richard Potashin
Location: Chula Vista, California
Date: June 2, 2010
Densho ID: denshovh-syo-01-0006

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RP: So do you recall roughly when you were removed from Los Angeles and sent to Manzanar?

YS: May of 1942. That's when I got into... that's when I arrived in Manzanar. I don't know the exact day but the month is May.

RP: Now you, you mentioned that you befriended another Hispanic gentleman while you were at Central Junior High.

YS: Yeah.

RP: And his name was Ralph Lazo, and you left before he did.

YS: Yeah.

RP: Did you even have any kind of idea that he was, he would show up in camp later on?

YS: No, well, when I... he went to Belmont High School like I was in the tenth grade at Belmont. And we used to sit and have lunch together, a bunch of us. And I said, "Ralph, I'm gonna see you. And I'll write to you." And I... after I got to camp I wrote him a letter, you know give him my address and whatnot, keep in touch, whatever. And then that's when I got the letters saying that he's coming up or, "And find a place for me to stay or whatever." Of course, when you get into camp they assign you a place where you're gonna stay. And that's when... of course I wondered how come he's comin' up? That was my first thought, so whatever. And of course he told me the day he was coming up so I went to meet him. And of course they had already assigned a place for him to stay, with some bachelors. [Laughs]

RP: So were you and Ralph buddies in, at Belmont in junior high?

YS: Yeah, we were friends, yeah.

RP: What kind of activities did you share or interests?

YS: Well, he was either a class above me or like back then there was a A-10 and a B-10, they had two graduating classes a year, one in May... oh no, one in, yeah, one in June and then one in late January. And so there was A-10 and B-10. And he was like, he was a half year ahead of me. So he had his own classes and then but we would get together on lunches, on our noon hours and just bat the breeze, whatever. Other than that we didn't have any classes together back at Belmont. Of course in Manzanar we had because they wanted only one graduating class a year so they shoved me up. I went to summer school to pick up that semester, half semester. And of course then we had some classes together. I remember I had a Spanish class with him and I'd pick his brain because...

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2010 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.