<Begin Segment 14>

TI: Did you talk about what may have happened, what might happen to you and your friends, to your parents, to the other Japanese Americans? Did you ever talk about that?

ET: I think we did some, but the opinion around that time is so different, and like I said, I was quite furiously mad because of the fact that 300,000 of Japanese, mostly Niseis around that time, were completely disregarded as far as Japan is concerned. And that in itself made it so clear to me, Japan's military government had to be defeated, is about the way I... I told that in Japan, and you know, they agreed with me. And I was real surprised, because even Kawai said that, "Well, you know, at times, I just couldn't believe this thing happened." And in fact, I did fly a little before we went to Whitefish -- not Whitefish, but White Lumber Company in Enumclaw, and they have a plane that we could borrow to go into National Logging Camp, and that's where I used to have a customer.

TI: And I'm sorry, what year would this be?

ET: This was 1938, '39.

TI: Okay, so it's a small plane that...

ET: Just a small two-seater, yeah.

TI: And that you would fly, or you would be in the...

ET: Well, I would just co-pilot the plane, and I knew how the plane takes off and lands, that type of thing. I don't know enough about it, but then I certainly became very curious about, and then want to know a little bit more about it. In the future life, I know I have to know how to fly, and I even owned a plane here in Spokane, the four-way partners. [Laughs] And Governor Daniel Evans was on that plane back and forth from Olympia to Spokane.

TI: But you, would you fly it?

ET: Well, I didn't fly with him on it, but then the partners did.

TI: I see. Okay, but anyway, you were talking about the...

ET: I was not really a... those days, you have to have license to fly, but before, we didn't have to have license.

TI: But were you going to tell a story, back in the '30s, you were taking this plane to the White Lumber Company?

ET: Yeah, I think, I think I flew with the guy, I was very, very much like Keith Oka more and more, a prankster, you might say. He touches the tip of the trees and things like that, and they kind of laugh about it. But to me, it was scary. I said, "Hey, let me fly." [Laughs]

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