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AI: I was going to ask you, during that time, gosh, I think you had said earlier in our earlier conversation that you were involved in some interviewing with some of the Issei.

CO: Yes.

AI: And now, could you tell us about what that was about?

CO: Well, the administration, the War Relocation Authority, were willing to cooperate with the war department to determine if there were so-called loyal residents, or if there were truly, if their loyalty was to Japan rather than to the U.S. So in order to determine who was which on this, they would set up loyalty hearing boards, so to speak. And they, everybody was supposed to come and sign an oath or sign a statement about their allegiance. I felt that it was a, really an insult to many of the people to ask them, "Are you loyal to the United States? And are you, or are you loyal to Japan?" It was ridiculous because in so many cases, the, the young people particularly knew nothing else than their American experience. With the older people, there were those who were probably genuinely interested in Japan, and if possible, they'd like to go. They were not people that you felt, or I would feel, were dangerous in the sense that they would be saboteurs or spies, but they had to be asked to sign a statement. And many Issei particularly felt that they didn't want to sign such an oath. They would, they, a few that I interviewed said, "Well, we, if we had the chance, we'd like to go back to Japan." And, but there were very few that I found.

Anyway, that was that whole program of interviewing. I could, because I knew a little Japanese, I could talk to some of the Issei in Japanese, in sort of a halting way, and maybe reassure them about the conditions that were out in the Midwest and so on, so they wouldn't have to be absolutely frightened and concerned. However, it was an uphill battle because, naturally, a good many of them and perhaps most were fearful of what would happen. So we can't say that we recruited many of the large families with the parents at all. Young people, yes. We could, they were ready to leave, and 'course, some of the men volunteered and got into the army, and some were drafted. But that was part of the program that was sort of distasteful to me, to have to do this kind of interviewing of people. For, there was a period where things had been going on at Tule Lake. We knew that, that there had been pretty rough happenings there and that yet there were still, and that it was gradually being turned into a segregation center for the so-called dangerous or disloyal or whatever. And yet there were at that point while I was there, enough people still that they'd either have to go to another camp or they could relocate. And so I went on a team up to Tule Lake, and we interviewed a lot of the residents who were eligible to leave. And couldn't spend a whole long time on it. It was only about four or five days that we were there.

AI: Do you recall about when that would have been?

CO: I'm trying to think, and my memory is hazy on exactly when. It must have been sometime between when I came to Poston, which was in the fall of 1944, I believe.

AI: Fall of...

CO: '95?

AI: Of the '40, '40...

CO: '40, 1944.

AI: Let's think about that because you were doing some interviewing around the so-called "loyalty questions," and as I recall, I think the loyalty questionnaire came out in '43?

CO: Is that '43?

AI: Yes.

CO: Yeah. Well, then it must have been a little earlier because it's hard to recall specific details of that, back that far.

AI: Right.

<End Segment 4> - Copyright © 2000 Densho. All Rights Reserved.