<Begin Segment 13>

AI: Well, let me just clarify the timeframe here, because you were just talking about the men volunteering for army service, and I believe that was very early in 1943.

MH: Yes.

AI: And, and that the questionnaire had come out at that time.

MH: Yeah. It was just prior to our leaving. See, we left in early part of '43. That was all going on when we were leaving.

AI: Well, when you, when you saw that questionnaire yourself, what was your --

MH: Well, I thought it was just unreasonable. Well, if the (...) Isseis gave up their (countries) they would be (...) no country of their own. And but of course, George L. (Townsend) saw all this and he immediately tried to get it changed. And (...) the wording did get changed, but nevertheless, by that time the damage was done. I think that was the closest to the most anxious time at, as far as my personal experience in the camp. Because as I said, we were put to work so much that we didn't have time to sit around and argue pros and cons. [Laughs]

AI: Well, and you, as you were saying, that it was a difficult time, and the questionnaire raised a lot of feelings. I was wondering, did you yourself have any thought about, about the questions, especially the loyalty questions? Did you discuss this with Iwao, have any question about how you yourself would be answering the questionnaire?

MH: Well, we, we didn't question anything. We knew, we'd made our stand, right. (...) We are Americans. We were going to abide by the rule. You know what I mean. So it didn't bother us at all. You know what I mean. We didn't let the other arguments... of course this was not right. We knew that from the very beginning. In fact, we had a lot of supporting friends who were on our side trying to help us under the trying situation. And we saw a lot of evidences of help, so it gave us support that we didn't have, and then we didn't have time with so many other things to be concerned about.

AI: And, of course, one of the reasons that this questionnaire was being required was that apparently the government was then getting ready to allow more people to go out of camp.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.