<Begin Segment 2>

AI: We're, in our earlier conversation, you told me that you got interested in social work after college. Can you tell me about that?

CO: Yes. I graduated from college in 1934, and if you recall, that was a time when it was almost the height of the Depression. And it wasn't easy to get a job. I did get one, however, in welfare work. And I had a taste of social work, and I decided that I would accept a scholarship to go to graduate school, which I did. And I went to the University of Chicago School of Social Work. My major was in child welfare, and I did fieldwork in that work. And there's where I met my wife. She was attending school. She was from Seattle. And we had contacts during the time we were going to fieldwork. So we both were, received our degree, and in a couple years, I married her. She was from Seattle and had a lot of Japanese friends there. She would have been -- she died four years ago -- but she would have been extremely interested in, in this program here at Tule Lake commemoration and pilgrimage. But I got involved because after I had taken a job in the state of Maryland with the public welfare department, I, a friend of mine told me about the War Relocation Authority, which was responsible for the Japanese Americans who had been removed from the West Coast and were in camps, and would I be interested? If so, why don't I try it out.

AI: Now, when your friend mentioned this to you, before that, had you heard anything about the camps?

CO: Frankly, no. I hadn't known about them. I don't think there was much publicity generally. I mean, I guess I must have known. But, yes the Japanese, persons of Japanese ancestry had to be removed from the war zone. That was known. And conditions that existed in the various relocation centers varied. Some were pretty miserable, and some weren't as bad as concentration camps would have been in, like in Germany.

AI: So after your friend mentioned this to you...

CO: Yes.

AI: ...what happened?

CO: I thought, "Well, this is where I might, my background might be of help, and it would be an interesting job for me." So I did apply and was accepted because I had the background of Japan and the Japanese language. My first assignment was to start a relocation center in Baltimore, Maryland. And the relocation centers existed in various parts of the East, and Midwest, the South, all over the country. They were to find job openings and living arrangements for people from the camps who didn't have to stay there. And so I started out in Baltimore, starting a relocation office.

AI: And about when was that? About what year?

CO: That would have been about 1940, early 1944, 'cause it was sort of late in coming. They had really just started getting these jobs, offers and so on.

AI: Could you tell me a little bit about, about the employers or people that you were trying to recruit as employers? What was their attitude?

CO: Well, we did get some publicity locally, and it attracted the interest of some people who either were desperately in need of, of help, of either skilled workers or even non-skilled, but dedicated people who would be good employees. We did some recruiting other than that, visiting some of the bigger companies and getting contacts with people and families where they could provide a housing arrangement for a family. Now, we realized that the chances of families coming wouldn't be as great as for single individuals because of, obviously, the fear that families had of leaving the shelter of camps. Bad though they were, they were a shelter. And they protected them from the, from the prejudice that existed in various parts of the country. I certainly can't say there wasn't prejudice in the East or the Midwest, but it wasn't like it would have been or it was in the West Coast. There were many people who wanted to know more and were perfectly willing to have people of Japanese ancestry come.

<End Segment 2> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.