<Begin Segment 33>

TI: Going through this experience, both of you, how do you think... I'm going to start with you, how do you think you were changed by this whole experience of going into the military, the 106th, the horrific battle, then being a prisoner of war, and then coming back, losing a child. What, how were you changed by all this?

JY: I just felt extremely fortunate at least I got back. And I really thought, I thought about the people in the camps, because on our way to Nuremberg, we passed by, we had to stop at a station, and by then we had heard about the persecution of the Jews, and we didn't know we were near Dachau until later. But at that point, the whole column stopped, and we were told to undress, and we had heard already about what had happened to the Germans in these chambers. And it turned out that we were going to be de-loused. So when the soldiers came out naked, we felt a lot better.

TI: Because you actually thought that you might be --

JY: Oh, we didn't know what was going to happen, yeah. Because the Germans were being pushed quite severely by then. But later we learned we were in the vicinity of Dachau then.

TI: And thinking about what you just went through, what were your thoughts about war, about family?

JY: Well, I think you turn first to family, and family in the large sense, you're thinking about the people in the camps, I identified our in-laws with, that they were out free. And because we got home, we really thought, gee, if the war turned bad against the United States, then the Japanese had an upper hand. But we didn't know what the rest of the population was going to do to the people in the camps. So it was a big relief to see that they were out and that the family was still intact. Beside the personal family being... we thought of that, yeah. Oh, and we thought what could have happened. Still to this day I think what could have happened.

TI: Did you get a chance to see your parents?

JY: Yes, later.

TI: And what was that reunion like?

JY: Oh, that was real nice, too. I can't just... can't see the order of how that happened. Because we had to spend our time in hotels because people wouldn't rent units to us when we responded to want ads or we went to the house. Repeatedly when we got there, they would say, "It's been rented," or, "We don't rent to you."

TI: Even though you were...

JY: In uniform.

TI: You were a soldier.

JY: Oh, no, that made absolutely no difference.

TI: And this was in places like Chicago?

JY: No, this was New York, yeah. So we stayed in hotels and used up all our back pay that way.

TI: In addition to housing things, were there other incidences where people discriminated against you because you were Japanese American?

JY: No, I remember one statement, somebody just on the street came up to us, and Aki was with me, he said, "Why don't you go back where you're from?"

TI: And again, you were in...

JY: In uniform.

TI: ...a U.S. Army uniform.

JY: Yeah, you feel like saying a few words to them, too, you know. But you knew it wouldn't do any good, so you just pass it on.

<End Segment 33> - Copyright © 2005 Densho. All Rights Reserved.