<Begin Segment 10>

TI: So, we're starting the second hour of this interview with Joe Ishikawa. So where we ended up the first hour was you're still in Japan, and you had expressed your viewpoint that you thought that Japan being in China was the wrong thing for Japan to be doing. But you mentioned that (January 1941) was when you returned back to the United States.

JI: Yeah.

TI: So why don't you, let's pick up the story there. So, coming back to the United States, why did you come back?

JI: Well, the, we got letters from the consulate, the American consulate saying we should return, because the commercial treaty of 1910 or whatever, had been abrogated. And so essentially, their relationship between Japan and the United States was to be cut off. And so he, American citizens were asked to return to United States, and my brother was getting kind of antsy about this, too, and somehow he got funds to get me out of there. And most of the people on my boat had drawn lots to get, get passage, and I don't know how my cousin, apparently, was able to get passage without any problem for me. So I took my... so anyway, I came back.

TI: So maybe I'm not -- make sure I understand this. So, a lot of people had to draw lots because there were a limited number of spots to go back. So do you think, somehow, through your brother or your cousin, you got preferential treatment?

JI: No, no, I don't think, it was just accidental that he was able to get, get something where, a travel agent or whatever, who had tickets that were not spoken for. There were, it was, as I say, the next to last ship, and I was aware coming back, it was a brand-new ship, the Asama-maru. And I figured it could be stripped down to become a troop carrier or something very easily, and they were trying to see how fast it could go. I don't know whether this might have been the maiden voyage as a matter of fact, but they came in a day early, which, and through very rough seas. This was in December, so seas were pretty rough. And yet, it made good time, so I figured that they had some plans for... there was one other passenger ship that was scheduled to come back, and after that, I think the United States sent a ship over to bring nationals back. But those were the three ships, except during, after war broke out, the Gripsholm was sent over to, to remove Americans. That was after the war and they had a treaty to... but that happened.

TI: So (January 1941), you come back to Los Angeles?

JI: Yes.

TI: And what was, what did you do when you came back?

JI: Well, I returned to school, and kept my usual existence. [Laughs] Just existence.

TI: How were you changed by this experience? You were in Japan for over a year. What, how, how do you think you were changed?

JI: Well, I guess it made me a patriot, a U.S. patriot, which I had kind of made fun of jingoism all through my growing up. I thought, I thought patriots were jingoists, and here I found that I became more... I realized when I got back that I had been homesick. I hadn't been homesick when I was in Japan necessarily. I didn't much like being there, but I wasn't what you'd call homesick, just yearning to come back. I didn't, maybe I, it was a matter of identification of things. But I was grateful that my father, when each of us kids was born, he repudiated the dual citizenship, so he cancelled the Japanese citizenship for all of our, us children. And otherwise, I'd have been subject to Japanese law when I was there, and I probably wouldn't have been permitted to come back. But...

TI: So it sounds like you came back with a appreciation of the American life, the American government, how things were done here, more so than you had before you...

JI: Yeah. Of course, that was before the Bush administration set in. [Laughs]

TI: [Laughs] We won't get into that right now, Joe. We'll pass.

<End Segment 10> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.