<Begin Segment 10>

AI: We're continuing on with Frank Yamasaki. And Frank, I'm going to fast-forward in time now, and I recall from your first interview that during World War II, after you and your family and all the other Japanese Americans had been removed from your homes and placed into camps, that you had tuberculosis. And so at one point, you were sent out to Spokane to be in a sanitarium.

FY: Can I make a little correction there? Actually, I did have tuberculosis in camp because I had some hemorrhage. And I went to the doctor and had checkup, and the x-rays apparently -- he says no, there was no problem. So I relocated to Spokane to go to school. And while I was going to school in the evening, I had a swing shift, working, so -- and then being a nice day and being outside, I was burning candle, you might say, on both end. And gradually I became very fatigued and finally went to the doctor, and he determined that I had tuberculosis.

The interesting thing is my first day at the sanitarium -- it was a Saturday when I went in -- and I was ushered in for supper. It was just in time for dinner. And after returning, they said, "Get your clothes on," and we all went to the, another dormitory area, and they were having parties. And I thought, "My gosh, here I've got tuberculosis, and it's all right for me to go to a party." Well, since then, I did learn a great deal about tuberculosis. But I think above anything else, as a teenager, I kept running, and I had no time to really reflect, sit down, stop, and reflect. And this is where hospitalization made me much more conscious of what's around. Again, I had a great deal of time to read because there's nothing else you can do.

I realized one thing, that most Asians that I knew, the way I grew up, we were all very negative-thinking. I could remember this one friend, attorney friend, told me that, "Frank, I don't mean to embarrass you or nothing, nothing reflecting on your background," but the kind of negative thinking that I grew up with is a common negative thinking also among whites. It is what they call "peasant thinking." The reason why they think in the negative sense is that if they were to apply for a job and if they don't get it, they feel terrible. But if they apply for a job with the expectation that they probably won't get it, then if they don't get the job, they don't feel so bad. So this negativism -- like my -- as an example, my parent would prepare -- spending two, three day preparing New Year's dinner. And the -- and then friends would come to visit. And they would come and say, "How beautiful." "How nice." "What a big spread." And my mother would say, "No, this is nothing at all. It's terrible." I grew up with that kind of a negativism.

So when I was in the hospital, I did have time to think about that and that all of a sudden, I realized that my tuberculosis was not as serious as many others. But when I was growing up, my parents -- not threatened, but warned me about taking care of my health, and if I don't, I'll get tuberculosis. Back in the '30s, tuberculosis was like someone saying you have terminal cancer. So -- so I learned a lot that, no, we can have positive thinking and actually heal ourselves much faster. And I got to the point where I wasn't afraid to make mistakes. I wasn't afraid to be wrong. And that made me a little more stronger. So I did learn, ironically, while I -- being hospitalized, I did learn about life. That's the first time I heard about the situation that was going on in the relocation center, where I heard the government wanted the Nisei to prove that they're American, and they wanted them to volunteer. And I became very, very angry about that. I said, "What?"

AI: And you heard about that while you were in the sanitarium?

FY: Yes. Well, no, my brother is the one that told me. This is just a couple years ago. I visited my brother in California, and he says, "Yeah, I remember you" -- we had a little bull session. I said, "Yeah, I remember you, you got angry when," -- I can't remember -- somebody told me about what was going on in camp. "And you said, 'Damn, that's stupid.'" I forgot about it.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2001 Densho. All Rights Reserved.