<Begin Segment 21>

AI: Well, so you were just showing me this letter that your father had written, and your father was born in 1899.

WW: Yes.

AI: And so when he wrote this letter, he was how old?

WW: About ninety-two, I believe. Yes.

AI: And so this is, if you read this letter, it'll describe a little bit about what he recalled from that time.

WW: Okay. This letter was written to a friend, good friend of his, and he says in the letter: "In result of Japan's surprise attack of Pearl Harbor, all of us, the people of ancestry of Japan, became most unpopular in U.S.A. 1942, in spring, we were driven out from home without almost anything which we can carry, and escorted by the military men, by special train, and were sent down to the assembly center, Pinedale, near Fresno, California, where we stayed there few month. The director of the, that center, appointed me as recreation director to pep up people's morale. I enjoyed this job, also became pretty popular. But time came to, we moved to Tule Lake relocation center. This camp is situated California and Oregon border, population 20,000 Japanese from Washington, Oregon, and some California. Three wards, fifty blocks, and I was appointed as manager of Block 49. After several months, the center became the segregated camp, and for some part occupied by extremely pro-Japan people, and rest were pro-American, therefore we must move again. We moved to the Minidoka relocation center near Twin Falls, Idaho, where second son, Joseph, was born."

AI: So here he was, ninety-two years old, and recalling what had happened so long ago.

WW: Uh-huh.

AI: And at the time, in 1942, he would have been about forty-one years old.

WW: Yes, yes.

AI: It sounds like he was very active in camp.

WW: Very active in camp. In some respects, despite the bitterness he felt, and the injustice which he felt for what occurred, he made the most of it, and being a gregarious person, just did things where he could be of help, and enjoyed, enjoyed himself doing so.

AI: Well, I'm really glad that you were able to share this letter --

WW: Oh, you're quite welcome.

AI: -- and it really, it adds to the picture of what his life was like at that time.

WW: Yes. Well, thank you.

AI: Thank you.

WW: I'm glad I brought it.

<End Segment 21> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.