<Begin Segment 18>

AI: And then when you returned back to Manzanar, to the camp --

AO: Yes.

AI: -- then what was happening then? I think you said earlier that that was about that time that the loyalty questionnaire had come out.

AO: Probably the loyalty question and...

AI: And so what kind of -- did you have a discussion with your parents or your sisters or brother about the questionnaire and what to do about the questions?

AO: Mainly my mother, she was determined to go to Japan. And she was determined to be included to qualify to be used as a civilian exchange. And in order to qualify us younger ones to renounce our U.S. citizenship. And that was the main reason that she wanted us to answer "no-no."

AI: So she clearly explained that to you.

AO: Oh, yes.

AI: That she wanted...

AO: She was definite. And, but I don't know Japan. And I didn't know what to do there. But my mother did discuss with me about going to Japan and what she expected us to do. And so I had in mind that, possibly, I could return -- I mean, not return, but go to Japan with my parents. And eventually go to Singapore and find work there. And I figured that Singapore is very, very humid and hot. And I had ideas that installing air conditioning. That's what I had in my mind, but I didn't know whether I could pursue it or not. So I agreed with my mother that if I had to go to Japan with the family that I would go there.

AI: Well, if it had just been yourself, if you didn't have to think about your mother and your father and what they had decided about going to Japan, what do you think you would have done on the questionnaire? Or did you have some thoughts about answering it differently?

AO: Well, I was, I was mixed in my feelings at the time. So I definitely answered in my own way to answer that I would not volunteer, that I would be willing to be inducted, and that's the way I left it. And then my mother found out how I answered, so she immediately went to the reviewing officer and asked to have my answers "no" and "no." And that's the way it was.

AI: So did you find out whether she actually got them to change your answers?

AO: Oh yes, definitely.

AI: They did?

AO: Yes. They, she definitely said that she had it changed and that was it.

AI: Because by then you were over twenty-one?

AO: Didn't matter. It didn't matter. [Laughs]

AI: And what about your, your older sister was married already?

AO: Yes.

AI: So she was living with her husband?

AO: Yes.

AI: And, but what about your younger sister and brother, what were, did you talk to them at all about how they felt about going to Japan?

AO: No. That wasn't necessary because they would do as their, as the parents.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.