<Begin Segment 69>

TY: [Jpn.] I see. By the way, although Hideo lived in Japan for a long time, he had returned here... I mean Hideo?

MK: [Eng.] Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] He had U.S. citizenship, didn't he?

MK: [Jpn.] Because he was born in the U.S.

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] No problem.

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] Then did you ever worry if he would be drafted?

MK: [Jpn.] Well, why... since then we had a war... oh, he was here during the war.

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] He escaped it.

TY: [Jpn.] Yes. He escaped the draft by the Japanese government, didn't he?

MK: [Jpn.] If he were in Japan...

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] Of course, he would have been drafted. He came here at the right time.

TY: [Jpn.] It looks like it.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah, come to think about it, he came at the right time. I never thought about it before. About a Japanese soldier.

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] I understand those in junior high and senior high were all drafted.

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] In Japan.

TY: [Jpn.] Yes.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah. Then, it is almost certain he would have been killed. But he escaped.

TY: [Jpn.] But didn't you worry if he might be drafted by the U.S. side?

MK: [Jpn.] No. Because he is Japanese. The U.S. wouldn't trust him.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] See? Because he is Japanese. There is no chance he will enter the U.S. Army.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] But anyway, when you were in Sunnydale, you couldn't get much information about Japan, but in the camp you heard many stories, didn't you?

MK: [Jpn.] Everybody spoke Japanese so fluently. Young people all learned Japanese there.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] When various people gather, they speak Japanese. Grandmothers are speaking Japanese. And the second generation are speaking English. Under these circumstances, they learn little by little.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] One or the other.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] Little by little. So that was a great thing. Yeah.

TY: [Jpn.] And you didn't have a chance to study English before you entered the camp, did you?

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah. They didn't teach me. They made me work... they wanted me to work. That's why they brought me here.

TY: [Jpn.] I see.

MK: [Jpn.] So they would not teach me at all.

TY: [Jpn.] Then, did you have a chance to study English after you entered the camp?

MK: [Jpn.] No. My group didn't go to study English. They went to learn flower arranging or cooking or something they liked. I wonder whether anybody went to study English. I've never heard of that.

TY: [Jpn.] Then you let your children handle English?

MK: [Jpn.] Yeah. That's right. I haven't heard of it. If there were an English class, I would have been. Because we were in the camp. I would think it is a good chance and go there. But I might not have been thinking that much.

<End Segment 69> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.