<Begin Segment 8>

AI: About when was that, that you got to Jerome? Was that about the middle of '43?

JY: No, no. It's, it was early February, somewhere around there. Because I went out again.

AI: So you went to Jerome?

JY: No. Yeah, Jerome.

AI: And you saw your family.

JY: Yeah, I saw the family, and then --

AI: They were still all together?

JY: Yeah. And then they asked for volunteers again from Jerome for sugar beet, and then a lot of people wanted me to go with them, because I've been there. My brother went and I went, see. My younger brother, so I went with them to Montana again.

AI: And your older brother stayed with your parents?

JY: Yeah. That was in '43. Yeah, '43, and then when I finished the sugar beet crop at end of September, I mean, September '43, we, well, I think we went back to camp.

AI: You and, you and Tad went back to camp?

JY: No, no. Johnny.

AI: Oh, Johnny. Sorry.

JY: We went back to camp, but when we went back to camp, I think my family was in Tule in, end of '43.

AI: So tell me, why did your family leave Jerome and go to Tule Lake?

JY: Well, my, my dad, he's the oldest son in the family.

AI: In his family.

JY: Yeah. He inherited some land in Japan, in Hiroshima, so he figured he's got nothing here, so he'd go to Japan and farm over there. And my brother, oldest brother, he didn't want to go, but he couldn't talk him into staying. He figured his loyalty stay with his, my parents, somebody gotta look after them, they're getting kind of old, so he went with them. My younger brother and sister, they're underage, so they had to go with them. Then in '43, end of '43 when I went back to Santa Anita --

AI: Or, no, you went --

JY: I mean, Jerome.

AI: Jerome.

JY: This time I went out to, for indefinite leave. And I went to Chicago. And my younger brother, Johnny, he went to Ohio. But my mother sent me a letter, she had my brother send me a letter, oldest brother, that she wanted me to join the family. That's when I had to decide where my loyalty lay. For my mother, or for America. So that's why I told -- you know like the speech I told you? I said, I figure she gave me life, so I owe my life to her. And if United States supposed to give me, if you're born here, it's, it's automatic. You're supposed to get your freedom and liberty and justice, and I'm not getting it. So I figure I'll go with my mother. So I, I came back to Jerome, I signed up for repatriation, and they, they didn't -- they refused it, turned it down, but they said I'm trying to evade the draft. But they was closing Santa -- I mean, Jerome then.

<End Segment 8> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.