<Begin Segment 18>

[Ed. note: This transcript has been edited by the narrator]

TI: So I wanted, about this time when you were considering this, I wanted to go back and talk about your father and where he was at this point.

SA: Well, this is interesting. I look at the Lordsburg papers, and I found out that there were ten permanent internment camps, which were our camps. We were under the army, they were under the Justice Department, that was the difference. They were under the INS, they called it, Immigration and Naturalization Service, and they, that service turns them over into the Justice camps, so they're classified differently than we are. And so they had two, only two at that time (specifically for Japanese internees) that were supposed to be permanent, which was Lordsburg, (New Mexico), and (...) the other one was (Stringtown, Oklahoma). However, they had a lot of these temporary (military) camps at which they had POWs and (everyone) else. And evidently, my father fell into (that) category. They had a hearing, evidently, after they were taken and into the permanent camps. And of course there were only three ways, you were either released outright, you were paroled, or you were there as a permanent internee and classified as "enemy alien" and under POW, but not exactly a POW, but a POW status. However, they found out that later they were bringing in regular prisoners of war from Italy and Germany, according to this report. And so they had to move some out and release 'em because there was too many in the camp and we didn't have that much space. So then they wanted to release the civilian internees back out from the army into INS, or whatever way it went. Maybe it was the other way around. So they got into temporary (military bases), and this is why my father got moved to (Fort Missoula, Montana), Camp Livingston. (Louisiana), and Kooskia, Idaho, (...) Santa Fe, (New Mexico, and Lordsburg, New Mexico).

TI: And while he was going from camp to camp, was the family aware, was your mother aware of where he was going?

SA: Well, the letters were far and few between, and as you know, they were heavily censored. And the great thing is, as I read it, as I looked at that (Santa Fe directory) one, and I didn't see his name written and I said, "Where is (he)?" because I knew he was there. Well, in the back pages, it said, "These people are being presently moved," and there was my father's name, heading for Kooskia, Idaho, but just a few were being moved again. And the great thing was, he was at Kooskia, Idaho, so when they were released into the Minidoka camps in '44, Kooskia, Idaho, was not far from Twin Falls, so he could (come home) -- of course, he's under armed guard 'til he hits Minidoka. But it was interesting to me, I didn't know that. But by the timing and by the dates, he was at the right place to come (to Minidoka to be reunited with Mom and I).

TI: And so what, how did it come about that he was released from Kooskia into Minidoka?

SA: Well, I wrote a letter, and I thought it was my letter, but it wasn't. [Laughs] It was Joe Tsujimoto who was in the armed forces before the war and then released and went back in, I guess. So he knew the army chain of command, and he told me later, "It's not your letter, it was mine," that went up the chain. And he wrote the same things I did, that I was in the U.S. (camps and) I wanted to get into the (U.S. cadet) nursing corps, and I couldn't because my father wasn't released. My three cousins were in the armed forces already, Roy was in (an early volunteer, and) he had gotten shot and was coming back, but (while cousins) Roy and George were in the European Theatre, (...) my brother was in the MIS, my other cousin was in counterintelligence, so (we) listed all this, that we were really loyal. This is what we were talking about, prove that the family was (very loyal and patriotic), and so they did release him (eventually with a lot of others in 1944).

TI: And so you wrote a letter to -- who'd you write your letter to?

SA: Eleanor Roosevelt. [Laughs] I thought she would be more (sympathetic) -- actually, she was against this evacuation totally, so was Herbert Hoover. They had a list of people, prominent ones, who were against it, because it was against the Constitution. But as you know, the Department of Defense (...)... was it McCoy, (who was under) the Department of, Secretary of War, Stimson (were adamant).

TI: Yeah, McCloy.

SA: And so, you know, it was basically DeWitt who was under that, Lieutenant DeWitt, he's the one who was the commander for the Western Defense.

TI: Right. So I wanted to ask, going back to Joe, he wrote a very similar letter. Who did he send it to?

SA: (...) I don't know, he said it went up the chain of command. He says, "That you would have never known," which is true. [Laughs] He said it was him, I said, "Okay." It was a good thing he said that because he died shortly afterwards, and I thought, "Wow."

TI: So his letter...

SA: His letter evidently turned the trick.

TI: And so he was...

SA: Yeah, he was released, 'cause they had so many things against my father as you know. My son's an attorney and he found it in the archives when he was in Baltimore, he looked (up my his grandfather's record). And that's why I have a picture of my father with fingerprints and all, and (his) medical history, which isn't that much. But it's interesting to see what they did.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.