Densho Digital Archive - George Nakata Interview (denshovh-ngeorge

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GN: And suddenly in Block 32, a Stafford school emerged, and suddenly we had a grade school. We had actually two grade schools, one down in a lower block, one up in Block 32, and then we had Hunt High School sort of in the middle of the whole Minidoka internment complex. Between Block 32 and Block 34 -- there was no Block 33 -- became sort of a baseball diamond, became sort of a playground. Near the canal that ran adjacent to Minidoka, they dug a big hole and made a swimming hole fairly close to Block 30, Block 31. At Block 34, one of the side barracks was converted into a theater, not really a theater but folding chairs, boxes to sit on, a screen and a movie projector. So things started to get organized little by little, step by step. And again, the Japanese built a hospital, and the doctors continued their practice, those that weren't drafted into the army, those that weren't part of the 442nd. Teachers that were teachers became teachers. The Murakami sisters were teachers at Stafford, and Miss Morton and Miss Kleinkauff or Mrs. Kleinkauff came in from Twin Falls to teach us.

So the organization of the Japanese later as I became old enough to understand it, was truly amazing to me and how they really made do with what limited things that they were equipped with. So they knew that education must continue, that some form of entertainment must continue. Each block had their thing. There were softball teams organized. My dad had never played softball in his life was suddenly on the Block 34 softball team. Mr. Katada, Jane's father, was on there. Mr. Hobara was on there, never caught a fly ball in his life. First fly ball that was hit to him in right field, he was under it, moved his mitt. The ball hit him square in the eye, biggest black eye I've ever seen. Mr. Muramatsu drove a ball into right center field. The ball went on forever. He ran to third base until Hank told him, "Papa, kochi yo, kochi yo," and he ran across the pitcher's mound over to first base, made it there with plenty of time to spare. My father always kept change and keys in his pocket. Whenever he got a base hit, you can hear all this thing jangling in his pocket as he ran around the bases. It was a great time to go watch because watching a softball game, we didn't really see organized softball before although they had it in Portland, the older Niseis played, but here you have Isseis forming a softball team, playing softball. Now the baseball players, they had very good athletes. Hank Matsubu and Takamis and the Shiki boys, and they were all there, Ray Shiki, Tom Shiki, great players. And they had the team called "The No Name Team" and they had "The Chain Gang Team," and I remember teams from, gosh, nearby Jerome and Eden and Twin Falls coming in to play, and our, we were probably say our "Chain Gang" and our "No Name" Nisei teams always beat them. So they were pretty good players that the Niseis put together in camp.