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AI: Well, we're, we're continuing our interview, it's May 13, 2004, and Elaine, just before our break, you had been telling us about the difficult times at Tule Lake that occurred around the so-called "loyalty questionnaire" in early 1943. But I wanted to back up before that, to the fall of '42. And I was just wondering if you recall anything about some, some workers' protests. That, I had read that, that there were some packing shed workers at Tule Lake that were protesting some of their working conditions, and that then a little bit after that, in, I believe I read in October of '42, mess hall workers were threatening to go on strike. And I, I was wondering if you had heard anything about that.

EH: I may have heard, but I've probably forgotten now. It's slipped my memory.

AI: Right.

EH: I think there was... seems to me there was a farm workers' threatened strike, and farm work is a detailed job. And I know that at one time, I think a lot of women also got recruited for packing or weeding. It was a booming industry, and when I took the Girl Reserves there, it was a real eye-opener. Because you couldn't see it from the camp. You had to go, they had to travel, I don't know, ten, five or ten miles away. But it was very productive.

AI: Well, so then I also wanted to follow up with a few more questions about the, the questionnaire situation. And you were explaining how difficult it was, what you were thinking about as far as how to answer, and what your other family members like your sister and your mother, how they might be answering. Do you recall talking about it with them afterwards, after you...

EH: (Yes), afterwards, but it seems to me it was pretty late, too. We might, must have started maybe seven or eight o'clock, and it was so haranguing and so detailed a questionnaire. Those of us who were not accustomed to filling things like that, I, we had to read it over and over to digest it all. I'm surprised, if that kind of thing ever occurred again, I, I would hope that they would allow families to get a preview or decide together. And the government realized that they made a mistake in asking our, the parent group to, to give up all allegiance. And by the time that questionnaire came back, I don't really remember that there was a second chance or a necessity to answer, but they must have changed it for other camps. But it was, it certainly is what created a riotous situation, and it certainly became obvious that Tule Lake was labeled a "troublemakers" camp, and when they decided to bring all the "no-no" people, or people who really wanted, needed to go back to Japan.

I had a friend who, well, I had a couple of friends who had relatives that were sick, and they were constantly worried about it. But I had a friend who also, whose father was so angry about the whole thing, had seven kids, and my friend was the same age as I was, that he was determined to take the family back to Japan. And he was Hawaiian-born and reared, and never went to, never had been in Japan. So, but she just was not going to let that happen. And so she got stuck in Tule Lake 'til the very end, and as soon as the government okayed her family to be able to go to Hawaii -- because they still had relatives in Hawaii -- then she left camp. But her, but her parents ended up having to pay for (it), because it wasn't, it wasn't a choice, a legitimate choice. But in this case, they did. And she really had to work hard to negotiate that. Fortunately, she was working in administration, and was in contact with lawyers that were working on other things. And they kept advising her and ultimately, "If you have relatives in Hawaii, there's, there should be no problem." They never evacuated the majority of Hawaiians. But then just, oh, probably five years ago, she told me that her folks had to pay for every bit of that, and they really had to work hard. Because they had to borrow money from here and there. And it was, it was hard, but she was much relieved. They, the whole family of six -- no, five of them, I guess, went over. The two oldest girls were the same age as Martha and I, and so they were able to find jobs elsewhere.

<End Segment 40> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.