<Begin Segment 25>

AH: Were you starting to think about that, even at Puyallup? I mean, you were talking about dancing and playing sports, you're also talking about doing some organizing within the D Section there to try to ameliorate, you know, bad conditions. But are you starting to think of things, too, in terms of your own personal conscience and your need to protest things, or not yet?

JA: Yes, in some way, but that was way in the back of my mind. The time-wise, it wasn't the time. There's a time when it'll come to be. But because I was told, number one priority you were going to have to challenge the government for what they did, because they set a very dangerous precedent. Okay? So that is set way back in my mind but it's not up front. But what I'm doing is what was there that had to be done to ease whatever condition in camp.

AH: And how long after you moved from Puyallup to Minidoka did this seed that had been planted there start to germinate to the point where it became more than just sort of a back burner issue, it became up front? What triggered it, in other words?

JA: Well, actually, all the things that was going on in camp. I didn't like what was going in camp. Number one, there is, you know, below the barracks, wide open and I want to close that, use the local people to close that. Here we had all the plumbing sitting out in the desert. Why can't we put it in? And I, as a civil engineer, I know exactly what to do and why can't we use people of camp? And the camp will say, "Hey, we have contracts out with such-and-such, such-and-such, we can't do anything." And I'm cold, I'm not feeling good and I have to go out to the john out between the blocks and here it is 20 below zero. Hey, let's get with it. And, you know, all of that is starting to come back, all of the things that we could do and we're the ones suffering. So all of that and the food was terrible and then I find out all the cheating, conniving, stealing going on, by WRA, because I am told by the outside people and the people that were doing the stealing for WRA. And now, it used to be in the back, now it's starting to come up forward.

AH: And is this starting to connect with what you're seeing going on in changes in terms of your mother, and then your dad's continuing absence from the camp?

JA: Well, as far as my mother, we didn't have too much contact. She was, she was wherever she was, and like me, I'm doing my thing. And I'm trying to make it easy as possible for all the younger people for their stay in camp and also trying to improve the condition all the way around. Like taking the people from the outside waiting for their meal to bring 'em inside, and then from there to tray service. And that's what I'm thinking and doing and I wasn't too much concerned, at that point. But once I got to Minidoka and I see the same conditions and all the hanky panky going on in camp, and who was trying to hold us.

<End Segment 25> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.