<Begin Segment 15>

MA: And how long were you in Crystal City?

YA: We were there 'til the end of the war. Let's see, it ended in August, September, October... and six months after the war, we came to Los Angeles.

MA: So you stayed a little bit after the war was over?

YA: Yeah. Well, we... there was another exchange ship in December of that year. The war was over in August, and the exchange ship in December. Some people were already leaving. They were starting to leave, but the exchange ship was in December and my brothers and I, we didn't want to go by then. We absolutely refused to go.

MA: But your father had wanted to try to get on that ship.

YA: Yeah, uh-huh, ship, because he was the first to, to sign up so he knew he was bent on going. But my brothers and I, see, we're two years older, they didn't want to go, I didn't want to go. So we said we gotta stick together and we're gonna stand up to my father tell him we're not going. And, you know, he said... he just nodded his head and says, "Okay." And we never questioned why he said no. Tomorrow I'm going to explain it, but we had a Crystal City reunion in 1988. And our friend from Seattle came for that reunion, and she said, "Do you know why you never went to Japan?" And we said, "No, we never asked my father." And he had already been, he was already gone by then. Well, in, during the war, her brother was in the MIS. He was a bilingual Japanese, Nisei. He visited Crystal City and he told -- and his father and my father were good friends. So my father went to that house to visit, and Marion's brother told my father, in utmost secrecy -- see the war is still going on -- "Don't go to Japan. They're losing the war." See, now, for him to say that to my father, you know, he could get killed or court-martialed. And my father never... he took that to his grave, he never told us. He never told us. And that's the reason.

MA: Wow, that's amazing.

YA: It's amazing. He knew Japan was losing, and after the war, in Crystal City, many Isseis felt Japan had won. I can't believe it, but they actually thought Japan won.

MA: This was after the war had ended?

YA: After the war was over, uh-huh. They were going to go to Japan in style, and they made dresses to wear to the dining room on the Matsonia. When they got to Japan is when they found out that Japan lost.

MA: I wonder why they were so sure that Japan had won.

YA: Well, it's the... have you ever heard of yamato damashi, it's the Japanese spirit. You never give up, you just, you do your best, you do your best. And that's what the 442 adopted. "Go for broke." That's Hawaiian for yamato damashi, is what I think. Anyway, it's... their spirit. They knew, and even I think my father felt that Japan would never lose because of that spirit.

MA: Do you think that's why your father wanted to go back to Japan those times?

YA: Yeah, uh-huh. And my aunt was waiting for us. She had everything ready for us. But when Japan actually lost, there were men crying in the camps. I could hear men crying and I asked my dad, "Why are they crying?" He said, "Because Japan lost." See now, those Isseis accepted that they were defeated. But some did not. They thought that all the news, the newspaper, was all propaganda. And even there was the rumor in camp that somebody had a shortwave and that Japan won this battle, they won this battle. It was pathetic.

<End Segment 15> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.