Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Fred Shiosaki Interview
Narrator: Fred Shiosaki
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Spokane, Washington
Date: April 26 & 27, 2006
Densho ID: denshovh-sfred-01-0012

<Begin Segment 12>

TI: Well, going back to your, your situation, so the first day, December 8th, you didn't go back to school. But how long did that go on? Did you go back to school...

FS: I went, I went back to school. My mother made us go back to school on Tuesday. And...

TI: And what was that like?

FS: The discomfort was on my side. I just, I guess for the first few days I expected somebody to jump out of the corner and punch me or something, and nothing really happened. Nothing really happened. School went on as usual.

TI: Well, like in class, when a teacher talked about the war or anything like that, how did you feel when that happened?

FS: I was, it was, there was certainly a level of discomfort. The, the reality of it was, to me, anyway, was that I guess at that point I felt more Japanese than American. I looked the part, and so, not that I, it was not that I was pro-Japan, it was just that I was uncomfortable in obviously whatever classes, most classes there was some discussion of what had transpired.

TI: Now, what about your, your buddies that you hung out with? Was there any difference, change with them?

FS: No, no, they were still friends.

TI: Did they ever mention the war to you, or what the Japanese had done?

FS: No. Not, I don't recall. I, there was never a, never a confrontation anytime. Any, even people who didn't know me, I don't recall at any time, did anybody ever say, call me, call me a so-and-so.

TI: Now, did you hear any rumors or news about what was happening inside the, say, the Japanese community in Spokane? Like things happening...

FS: Well, it's, the, bad news travels fast, and there were three or four men who were leaders in the community, and they disappeared on Monday, the FBI swooped down and picked them up and they were gone. And they ended up in those, you know, that detention camp down in Arizona.

TI: Now, so how would news travel? How would it get to your family and you?

FS: Bad news travels fast, you know. It, it came on the telephone. Somebody would call my mother or father and say, "Mr. Kasai and Mr. Hirata and somebody else have disappeared." They actually just disappeared. The FBI came and, I think, with the clothes on their back, took them with the clothes on their backs.

TI: And so at this point, lots of things are happening. What were the rumors? I mean, what were, what was the sense from your parents what would happen to them and, and the family?

FS: Well, mostly they were scared, I'm sure they... you know, just dinnertime conversation, gee, we don't know what's going to take place at this point, we were worried. The laundry was right next to the railroad tracks, and if people were looking for an excuse to move us, that was a good excuse.

TI: Well, did, talking about this, so the railroads were viewed as a strategic asset in the United States.

FS: Oh, certainly, uh-huh.

TI: Did that affect the, say, the Japanese workers in the Hillyard area? You mentioned --

FS: Oh, certainly. I'm sure that they knew they were in peril, that, that, in the railroad camps. They, they figured that they would get moved out, and as I recall, and I think it's right about the time I went into the service, they closed that camp down and those people, they moved those people out of there. But I don't know. I don't recall what happened to them.

TI: So when they closed the camps, did they just move them someplace else, or did they fire them?

FS: People had no, they didn't fire them, the railroad. They did, they did close that camp, though, as I recall. I remember that one family that we, we continued to know, moved into an apartment over in, near us.

TI: In terms of after the war, restrictions, were there restrictions for Japanese and Japanese Americans in Hillyard and Spokane that you were aware of, like certain places you weren't supposed to go, or certain times you weren't supposed to be out, do you recall?

FS: We were, I can recall that, first of all, you couldn't be out after nine o'clock at night. And then there were certain areas that were, were declared strategic areas, like the upriver dam where the city water power, water system comes from. And the telephone company building and all these things. And, of course, we were limited, we couldn't travel more than ten miles without getting a pass from the FBI or something. So things, yeah, we were pretty much restricted.

<End Segment 12> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.