<Begin Segment 24>

TI: Well, before we go there, Yosh, because I was thinking... so we were just talking about how the government, you could relocate out. And eventually your family did leave Minidoka.

YN: When we were given permission by the three governors that we could come back to the West Coast. They were (all initially) against our return.

TI: I'm sorry, they were, they were against your return.

YN: They asked us not to come back.

TI: So the governors of Washington, Oregon, and California...

YN: (The three Western states) didn't want the Japanese Americans to return.

TI: But eventually they did give their permission.

YN: Right.

TI: Or it was forced upon them.

YN: That's right, they had no choice, but it wasn't, "Come back (to your home area)." "Go somewhere else, don't come back."

TI: So do you remember that time, deciding?

YN: I could remember because my parents wouldn't, wouldn't go (to another state). They waited (and always hoped to return to Seattle).

TI: So they, whereas other families were leaving camp to go to other states, your, your parents wanted to wait until the West Coast was reopened.

YN: They wanted to go home.

TI: They wanted to go home, back to Seattle.

YN: You asked the question. (...) Home was not Japan, 'cause of their children (were American). They paid a tremendous penalty. Their dreams were put down under racism and misunderstanding. My Norwegian friends and things all go back to Norway, no one thinks negative of them. Why it was an issue that my parents might have wanted to go back to Japan is as normal and as human as anybody else's right. But they had to make a sacrifice to be Americans (and give up their identity as Japanese).

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.