<Begin Segment 14>

TI: Before we get to the, the war starting, after you graduated from high school, what did you do? 'Cause this was still before the war, you graduated from high school, so what, what were you doing?

RY: Oh, I wasn't doing too much. In '41, I remembered, well, I was in the Scouts when I was twelve years old, I was in the Boy Scouts. So, so in '41, I was still in the Scouts. And our, our troop was sponsored by the American Legion Post number 9, and I was the old, old standby in the Boy Scouts in our troop. So they had a, the American Legion started their Boys State, which is for political-minded personnels, I guess, even, they even still have a Boys State, but this is in 1941. And this was the first one. And they, they said for me to go because I don't know, I wasn't politically inclined or anything, but because I was the oldest scout in our troop, they decided to send me. I found out that that's, that's what the, you know, that's what the people were going into the Boys State, is because they were mostly political, politically-minded.

TI: So how would the Boys State be, because there probably weren't that many Japanese at Boys State?

RY: No, there wasn't, just me; I was the first one in the Boys State. And naturally, I mean, they treated me pretty good. In 1941 there was no, nothing there, but at the Boys State, I couldn't, I mean, I wasn't, I wasn't... like I say, I wasn't much of a bookkeeper or anything like that, but whenever there was a office... well, we had, in the Boys State we had different, different counties, and in the different counties, we had different cities, and we had different offices. And in that, how long, I forgot how long we were there, two weeks we were there, we had elections. City office, county office, state office. Each one of those, election time, my group always put me up for something, and you know, it's just political and friendly putting me up. And I ended up as state treasurer, you know, in the state election. But I remember one time I was court, court auditor or, and I told them, "I can't take that position, I can't, I don't take shorthand. And I can't even write, spell too good." He said, "Oh, we'll put you up anyway." So that was the day that I remember, when we had a court session, and I was supposed to take notes for everybody's, what they were saying. And the guys would come up to me and say, "Just speak in Japanese" -- [laughs] -- "and let it go at that." Anyway, that's how I got... and I had fun at the Boys State.

Like I say, there was no other Orientals, there wasn't anybody, but some of the boys, one of the boys, we started writing letters right after we, one of 'em wrote me a Christmas, Christmas card, and then one, one Christmas card, it was way before Christmas, and then the next one was just before Pearl Harbor. And... I still remember that Christmas card I got. I saved it, I don't know why I saved it because, but, you know, it was sent to me from Hawaii in December 5th or 6th and postmarked in Spokane December 8th, no, 11th or something. And I kept it, but I never did hear from him. He wrote to me at that time and says, "You wanted a pen pal from, from Hawaii, so I'll get you one." After that, I never did hear from him, I never heard from him since, since the war.

TI: So this was a, a boy that you had met at, at Boys State.

RY: At Boys State.

TI: And he was in Hawaii, he sent you a, an early Christmas card, just the day before the bombing at Pearl Harbor, and after that, you just never heard from him.

RY: I never heard from him.

TI: And so it's kind of interesting to me, because this is in 1941 right before the war started, you were well-accepted by these other, primarily Caucasian boys.

RY: Oh, yeah.

TI: And in fact were, were somewhat popular in terms of getting into state office.

RY: Oh, yeah, and not only that, during the war, one of my friends from the Boy Scout, days was in the Marine uniform, and I was, I was downtown and walking around, and I didn't notice him, and he yelled at me and, in his uniform, he yelled at me and said, "Hi, Dick." I said, I looked up, and here he was in a Marine uniform. And I was really surprised to see him, especially when the war was still on. And we talked a little bit on the street, and that's, that's another person that I, I never heard from after I saw him.

TI: But when you saw him, he was, he was friendly? He said, "Hi..."

RY: Oh, yeah.

TI: And how did you feel when you saw him in uniform? What were you thinking?

RY: Well, well, I don't know, I felt pretty good. 'Cause here he was in his uniform, and here I was still, still a non-, I'm not in a uniform or anything, and here he stopped me in the middle of the street, sidewalk and talked to me. I felt kind of good, because he was an old friend in high school, he was an old friend in high school, and he was an old friend in the Boy Scouts. So yeah, it made me feel real good, especially, especially when the war was still going on.

TI: Well, and in a similar way, were there old friends from high school or Boy Scouts who during or after the war, weren't, weren't as friendly? And so it was, so you would half expect that also?

RY: No, like I'm not a, very much of a outgoing person, so I, I didn't get in touch with any of the students that I went to school with. In fact, a couple of the students that went to Boys State became quite a, quite a state, was in quite a state government. I forgot his name now, but no, I never did get in touch with any of the old students like lot of my friends, they said, "Oh, I'd see these guys and that guy," and I don't know. I just, I'm not that outgoing, I guess.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.