<Begin Segment 20>

[Translated from Japanese]

TY: Also at a later time some Nisei men enlisted in the army. I wonder if some members of your temple youth group enlisted in the army.

YI: Yes.

TY: Did you know some of them?

YI: To where?

TY: Some from the youth group of your Seattle temple...

YI: There were some.

TY: So there were some who enlisted in the army. What did you think of that?

Shinya: Yes, there were.

TY: Were there?

Shinya: Yes.

TY: What did you think of it? You knew those young men. Those you knew through the temple enlisted in the army.

YI: The young men I knew?

TY: Yes, the young men you knew. You knew them before. The people you knew at the Buddhist temple enlisted in the army, didn't they?

YI: Well, I don't know.

TY: Do you remember the 442ndcombat team?

YI: Who?

TY: Do you remember that some Nisei men enlisted in the army?

YI: Oh, that time. Their parents were really worried. Of course they would worry. Their sons were going to fight against the country where they were born. Their own country. Some parents objected. But those boys were born in the U.S. and so they had to go. Most boys went. But a few didn't go and were put in jail.

TY: Among those who enlisted, were there some who belonged to the Buddhist temple?

YI: Yes, I suppose so.

TY: You probably heard about someone you knew who was injured or killed in the war.

YI: I wonder if most of the 441st [Ed. note: 442nd] Battalion were boys from Hawaii.

TY: I heard there were many from Hawaii. Because of that...

YI: They were sent to the front line.

TY: Also I heard that among Japanese Americans there were some difference in opinion between those who sided with the U.S. and those who sided with Japan.

YI: I guess there was some.

TY: What did you think about it?

YI: Nothing in particular. You were caught in between. Really. But those boys were born in the U.S. and were citizens. So they naturally... those young men who were sent back to Japan by parents and educated there did not want to enlist in the army. Some of those went to jail.

TY: Did you hear about such arguments?

YI: Huh?

TY: Brothers fighting with each other.

YI: Yes, I heard. Philippines or somewhere. One brother was in the Japanese army and another was in our army. I heard such a story. One brother became a Japanese soldier and the other an American soldier. We shouldn't have a war.

TY: I was told that in 1944, the second year in Minidoka, a Jodo-Shinshu temple was created. Were you still in Minidoka at that time?

YI: Minidoka?

TY: Yes. I was told that a Jodo-Shinshu temple was established in Minidoka.

YI: Really?

TY: Yes. Then probably you were not there at that time.

YI: I didn't know that it was started in Minidoka.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 1999 Densho. All Rights Reserved.