<Begin Segment 10>

MA: How many years did you stay in Japan?

SO: That's another thing I was discussing with Mas yesterday. He said, "I think you was there a little over three years, wasn't ya?" And I think so, about three-and-a-half years.

MA: So by the time you were maybe sixteen, seventeen, you decided --

SO: Yeah, let's see. Oh, easiest way is if... thirteen... if I went backwards, fourteen, three, and I was, yeah, it must be three-and-a-half years, because from eighteen, we would have been drafted. See, I was seventeen-and-a-half when I left, that's another reason I told you I came over.

MA: I see. So the age for the draft in Japan was eighteen years old?

SO: Eighteen, yeah. It wasn't necessarily the draft, you couldn't leave the country after that. They kept you there, you couldn't leave. So if they have to draft you, they got some, you'd get drafted. That's the draft age, so after draft age, they called it ashidome, that means you can't leave the country, you're stuck.

MA: And so you --

SO: Before that, I took the last boat out and came back.

MA: And what, what about your brothers and sisters?

SO: He served. The girls didn't serve at all, but he did, he served in the navy.

MA: For the Japanese navy?

SO: For the Japanese navy, and he lost his citizenship, of course.

MA: So you left to avoid the Japanese draft, to avoid the draft, basically?

SO: Mainly, yeah. I hate to say (these) things, but that's the truth.

MA: And then your siblings stayed in Japan.

SO: They stayed --

MA: And they eventually stayed throughout the war?

SO: My brother, he was going to come, but he passed his exam for higher ed., so he went to college, and he said he'd like to finish it out before he came over. And then, of course the war started and he was stuck there and he got drafted, and that was it.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2006 Densho. All Rights Reserved.