Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Bruce T. Kaji Interview I
Narrator: Bruce T. Kaji
Interviewer: Martha Nakagawa
Location: Los Angeles, California
Date: July 28, 2010
Densho ID: denshovh-kbruce-01-0013

BK: Louis Frizzell was a recent graduate of UCLA music school. He was born in Shafter, California. We found that out afterwards. We come back and met his father up at Shafter, California. It's a town way up north. And his major at UCLA was music, and he came to us in Manzanar as a teacher to take over the music department. And he had a special talent. He was a single man. He was, had some physical problem. I don't know if it was a heart or whatever, but he couldn't join the armed forces. But he was tremendous in terms of musical talent. While he was at UCLA in music he wrote a musical about college life and what we did is, I think in about the third year of camp life, we experienced him getting involved in more music and drama, orchestra. At first, as the classes convened, he got them organized and got them involved in singing (in) choral groups. So he formed a lot of choral groups, different classes, and had different kinds of musicals that he created for different seasons. So he got them involved in Christmas, singing messiahs and Japanese, I don't know, Christmas songs. And he formed an orchestra and got them to play different kinds of seasonal tunes. Christmas time, he got them to play the "Toy Trumpet," and other seasonal performances. [Interruption] And he got them excited. He got them involved. He got them to sing songs from different parts, from Australia, so he got them informed (and educated). Christmas songs, he got the orchestra to play seasonal songs. The play he wrote, he got them to also play other parts of drama, drama class. So he got them really going, and I don't think that the Niseis that were in our class would've ever been involved in any of these things had they stayed at the schools they were in, because they were too timid, or kind of reserved kind of people, not the outgoing like the Jewish kids or other kids, but they were exposed to Mr. Frizzell, who used their talents and brought it out. And I thought he did a whale of a job of keeping us involved (and participating).

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