<Begin Segment 17>

TI: Well, let's go there. Because you're at Tanforan for about four months, and then you had to go to Topaz, and during the train ride from Tanforan to Topaz, you had a, you and your older brother had a conversation with your father.

TA: Yeah, a very long...

TI: I wanted to go back to that, and talk a little bit more about that. Like, what else, he mentioned, you mentioned earlier how he talked about his conversation with the FBI when he was picked up, but you talked about other things, also, during that.

TA: Oh, yeah. He talked about, he talked about what our situation was. He says, "We're going there -- " by the way, he, he was, he was convinced by my mother to make an application to join my, my grandmother. But the authority says it was too late. "You people, do it when you get to Topaz." So he was anticipating putting in his application, and then putting it and going to, to Granada. He talked about that, he talked about the various options that he had, like we could go all out on our own, or we could go to my, my mother's sister's, who lived in Chicago. We could go there, or we could go to Granada. And so he talked about the options and what we would do, but he says that, "No, we will not be in camp." He says, he says, "If we're in camp," he said, "What we're gonna do is lose a lot of initiative, we'd be complacent, we'd be, we won't, we'll lose our own free will." He says, "Freedom is too precious to, to sit in the camp." And so he was, he was adamant about going outside.

TI: So he was pretty aware that, that there were ways to -- even though you were going to Topaz, that once you got there, there would be ways to leave Topaz and to get back into society.

TA: Yes, because that's what the authority told him. Says, "When you relocate, it's only a temporary thing, and once you get there, you could relocate outside to wherever you want." And that was the word that was given by the authority. That was the promise. Says, "You people, that's what's gonna happen to you."

CO: And I think that was WRA policy, which clashed with, say, the army and... I, I see that as a big struggle there.

TA: Yeah, because there was a switch between the army, your army authority and WRA. But anyhow, he, he was adamant about going outside, and he talked about loyalty, he talked about bushido, and what, he says, "You are an American." He says, "When you get older, you will fight for America." Says, "The Japanese will fight for Japan, Americans will fight for America, and he says, "I will support you and I believe in democracy," and so in our mind, Tosh and our mind, is that we will go to Topaz temporarily, we'll go out, and then he says, "It's gonna be hard, it's a lotta hardship." He said, "We don't have any money, we don't have any property." He says, "The only thing we have is our back and our hands." And he says, "We'll have to struggle," but he says, "Would you, would you help?" He says, "Gambarimasho." So let's, let's do it together. And, and we says, "Yeah, sure." At that time, we felt, "Gee, he's treating us as an adult." He's never talked to us like that before, especially about his personal life, or the family. But he was, he was divulging all this to us, and we, my brother and I, we started to appreciate that, and says, "Oh, this is great." So we were anticipating going outside.

TI: Well, it sounds like a, like a motivational, uplifting conversation that you had.

TA: Yeah, yeah. I think more soul release on his part, to let us know how he felt, and then saying, "Okay, gang, let's get, let's get ready to prepare to go outside. Because we are not going to stay in the relocation camp." Says, he says, "Freedom's too important." And so that was his rally call.

CO: Yeah, and after all, I mean, he had been led to believe that, yes, that this was possible, and could happen.

TA: Yeah. That's what the authorities were telling him. I mean, all of us. And so, so he took that to heart. He says, "That's what's gonna happen."

TI: So with that feeling, you, you went to Topaz.

<End Segment 17> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.