By RICHARD IMAMURA
Two of the youngest fishermen featured in the classic documentary film “The Manzanar Fishing Club” will return as special guests to the Bart Hall Fishing, Boating, Hunting, Camping and Outdoors Show this year.
Both roughly only ten years old when they arrived at the prison camp in the high desert of Eastern California in 1943, Mas Okui and Sets Tomita will share their stories and memories from the “Manzanar Fishing Club” booth Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 26, 27 and 28, at the Long Beach Convention Center, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach.
Originally dubbed the Fred Hall Show in honor of its founder 75 years ago, it has grown into the largest, most popular fishing, boating, hunting and outdoor sports gathering west of the Mississippi River.
Returning to its accustomed home at the Long Beach Convention Center from Jan. 25-28 under Fred’s son Bart (who actually started helming the show many years prior), it will again offer hundreds of exhibitors representing all facets of California’s bustling outdoor sports sector. The Long Beach shows alone typically attract more than 300,000 guests to its weeklong run — making it THE must-attend event for the sprawling outdoors community in Southern California.
“The show holds a special place in our hearts,” said “Manzanar Fishing Club” director Cory Shiozaki. “We were first invited by Bart Hall back in 2009, which turned out to be our debut event before the general fishing and outdoor sports community. Over the course of that first show, we went from a small community-supported project scratching ahead on a near-daily basis to a serious historical documentary film eventually completed with both state and federally funded grants. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to give Bart a whole load of credit for our finished film.”
The documentary follows life in the Manzanar “Relocation Center,” located roughly 200 miles northeast of Los Angeles along Highway 395 between Lone Pine and Independence in the Eastern Sierra. Nearly 11,000 Japanese Americans, mainly from Greater Los Angeles, were uprooted from their homes and stashed away at Manzanar from 1942-45 as “aliens” and “non-aliens” (U.S. citizens).
But Manzanar also had a hidden secret — it was prime trout fishing country, nestled comfortably in the shadow of the eastern slope of the mighty Sierra Nevada. For the next three-plus years, the inmates already familiar with fishing and those game to give it a try had the prime fishing grounds to themselves, more or less.
“Both Sets and Mas fell under the fishing spell,” Shiozaki noted. “They were among the youngest of the nearly 350 incarcerees at Manzanar estimated to have gone fishing (or tried to) at least once during the four-plus years of incarceration.”
After the war, Okui went on to become to become a well-known fly fisherman, still respected today, if not revered, among devotees around the world.
Tomita continues today to practice and refine the sport/art that provided comfort and a shield to a young boy facing a frightening world just beyond the barbed-wire fence.
The documentary was completed in 2012, and the official premiere was held in conjunction with that year’s Fred Hall Show.
Manzanar Fishing Club DVDs were sold at subsequent Fred Hall Shows, as well as “official” caps, T-shirts, jerseys and more.
While new DVDs are no longer being pressed, plans continue to be considered to keep the documentary available to the public by adding an outlet for downloadable sales.
Shiozaki says, “In recognition of the special relationship that has developed between the show and ‘The Manzanar Fishing Club’ over time, we will bring our last 30 DVDs for sale this year — one last time before we run out and move on. Probably bring our commemorative 10th– anniversary caps as well.
“Both Mas and Sets will be available over the weekend to sign DVDs and caps as well just shoot the breeze and visit.”
Anyone interested in working the booth as a volunteer — meeting our visitors, promoting our current activities like Adopt-A-Highway, walking tour and so much more — please contact us through our Facebook page.
And thanks for everything!
Richard Imamura is the writer and co-producer of “The Manzanar Fishing Club.”