<Begin Segment 15>

TI: So you mentioned that you were only at Minidoka through one winter.

JS: One winter, yes.

TI: And so in 194-, yeah, '43, the government came out with the, the "loyalty questionnaire."

JS: Right.

TI: So do you remember that happening?

JS: I do, I do. I didn't have any... at the point where I signed that, I didn't have a problem because I pondered the question of whether I should volunteer or not, and among the coal crew, there were some macho guys, you know, and there was a group that wanted to be the first to volunteer. And one of those guys was Bill Nakamura, who later earned the Medal of Honor.

TI: So, Bill Nakamura.

JS: Yeah. And there was Pete Fujino, who was a friend of mine, not before camp, but in camp, 'cause he worked on the coal crew as well. And they wanted to be the first to volunteer. I had not made up my mind to do so.

TI: Did they give reasons why they wanted to be the first?

JS: No, just that they wanted to. And, and a lot of the parents were upset with their sons volunteering for the military because we knew that it was going to be in the infantry. We all already knew that it was gonna be the -- we didn't know the term "442nd," but we knew that it was gonna be a segregated unit, infantry unit. So I gave it some serious thought, and I guess that was part of growing up. I was going on nineteen, or I was nineteen already, 'cause I was born in October. So I was nineteen, and it was at that time of my life when you had to make a decision to either go or not go. And I had not talked to my folks at that point. And once I decided, and it didn't matter at this point whether my friends went or not, I had decided for myself that I would volunteer because America, the U.S., was the only place I knew. There was no place that, regardless of how we were being treated, if there was any hope for the future, I felt that it was going to be here in the U.S. And so I made a decision, conscious decision to volunteer.

Before I told any of my friends, I wanted to talk to my folks, and I did. I talked to my father and mother. My father had come back to us by then, and they listened to me and they were quite supportive. They said that, "This is your country, and so you have to make your own decision on that." And my father had served in the Japanese navy, but he was, at that point in his life, I presume that he recognized that we, the Nisei, were Americans. That he also recognized that there was little chance that we would go to Japan and live, so when I told him that I had decided to volunteer, he was surprisingly quite supportive. And of course, my mother was sad, but... like all mothers. But, so I was able to leave under a feeling of having been given permission by my parents. So I was fortunate. Some did not have the same experience. Some had a difficult time with their parents, but anyway... and I might mention that this is the first time that I was able to talk to my dad, my father, as an adult. Up until then, I was still the, the son, he was the father. But I think at that point, he accepted me as being the, an adult.

TI: And what did that mean to you? I mean, you, so it was like a different dynamics with your father.

JS: Yes, it was. It was more of a feeling than anything else. Nothing had really changed except the feeling that I had, and the sense that I felt that he had a different feeling towards me. So...

TI: How long had your father been back from Missoula when you had this conversation?

JS: I would guess a month, maybe a month and a half.

TI: Do you think your father was changed by the...

JS: Experience?

TI: ...by being away from the family?

JS: I didn't notice any real change in him, because he was quite peaceful when I visited him at the immigration detention area. He was less concerned about himself than I was at that point.

TI: And so this conversation with this different feeling was really around your decision as an adult to serve, to volunteer to serve in the U.S. Army.

JS: Uh-huh.

TI: So what was the reaction of your friends? Now that, eventually you go back to the coal crew and you let them know. What was that like?

JS: Right. Well, you know, surprisingly, a good many of my friends also volunteered, and some had good experiences with their, in telling their parents, and others had a tough time. But there's a fellow that's attending this reunion now, Art Doi, he lives in Sacramento now, but we've been longtime friends, and he volunteered but I didn't know that he was going to volunteer, and he didn't know that I was gonna volunteer, but we both did. And I think that it was a good decision that enough of us did volunteer because I think it changed the attitudes of people. And it, I think it improved our ability to become Americans.

TI: So I want to get back to -- you mentioned earlier -- how Bill Nakamura and Pete Fujino were vocal about volunteering. How much influence do you think that had on, on you and the others, when you heard people speaking out like that?

JS: Not much, because I knew that Bill Nakamura and Pete were... in a way, they were bragsters. And although Bill was a hero, in those days, he was just another loud guy. [Laughs] He was bigger, and so was Pete, and so the bigger guys got the bulk of the attention. [Laughs]

TI: Were there any of your friends, either on the coal crew or elsewhere, that decided not to volunteer and not to serve?

JS: No, I didn't know of any that -- and it was a personal thing. So I certainly didn't go around asking, "Did you volunteer?" It was just a personal decision, and if they did, that was fine. Looking back on it, I certainly salute them, those that did, because they did make a difference. But if somebody didn't want to go, well, that was something they had to decide.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2007 Densho. All Rights Reserved.