<Begin Segment 42>

AI: You know, I wanted to ask you, that was such an interesting story about Mr. Yabuki and yourself being really the first racial minority people employed at the Bellevue post office. I was wondering about the late '40s, it sounds like around '45, '46, all your families -- now, you weren't here really, because you were in the service, but all your family came back to the Puget Sound area, here to the Eastside area. I was wondering what kind of reaction they got, coming back as Japanese Americans, after camp.

TI: I wasn't here right at the beginning of the year that they allowed people to start coming back, but as I recall, I believe it was the first of 1945 that they were opening up. But there was a lot of anti-Japanese feelings still, in the Bellevue area, and I have heard that some people, Japanese people that is, made some quiet inquiries about the situation in Bellevue, and whether they should come back or not. And some of the advice that they got was, don't come back right now, it's not ready, ready to have people start coming back. But there were some businesses in downtown Bellevue, which was just a one-street town at the time, they had signs, "No Japs Allowed." So, there were mixed feelings, in and around that time.

JM: Well I, yeah. I think some of 'em had signs up there but, I think if you confronted 'em later on, they might have felt a little embarrassed. Because a lot of the Japanese did business down there, you know, they depended on for all kinds of things, even though minor, why, they depended on their business. So I think gradually, they integrated quite smoothly. But, some of 'em, I think we found out that who our real friends are. Because, before the war we used to get along real good with the businesspeople, and neighbors, and things like that. But after you come back, why, you hear horror stories, about certain people, certain factions that, what, let their feelings be known about the Japanese. But I think as a whole though, they accepted the Japanese when they came back. I wasn't here, but this is the general feeling that I got from people that came back. And there were some friends that really were ostracized for siding, or helping the Japanese out when they came back. Even during the war and before, they were more isolated from the general public because of their feeling towards Japanese.

<End Segment 42> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.