<Begin Segment 46>

AI: Well, you all have younger generations coming up. And with that in mind, I wanted to ask you all to think back on the war years. And if you could think about, and tell about what you think were some of the worst of the long-term effects of the war years. And also to think about, was there anything positive that came out of those years.

TI: I, for myself, speaking for myself, I think one of the big setbacks in my life was the financial loss that we incurred during evacuation, and the time lost during that period where we could not carry on our normal, daily things that we were doing at that time. Well, of course, there's always this anger, and sorrow that the government did this to citizens of the United States. You understand that we were not aliens like our parents. We were American citizens. I was happy, though, in one respect, in one respect, and that was that the evacuation forced (some of) the Japanese populations in the three states of Washington, Oregon and California, (to seek) an opportunity to go elsewhere after they (were released) from camp. For those people that wanted to go elsewhere, or for those that didn't want to come back for various personal reasons. And it gave the people of the United States, other citizens, a chance to find out some part about what happened, and gave us opportunities to explore other fields of work besides farming and the fruit stands, and gardening. So, in that respect I think it was a great opportunity to explore bigger and better horizons.

JM: My thoughts are just about the same as Tosh's. We weren't afforded the opportunity to get a higher education, one, because of financial, and another is because after we graduated from high school they were only allowing certain amount of minorities to enter the University of Washington. I, at one time while I was still pretty sharp, my mind was pretty sharp, I, I thought maybe I could go. But, during the Depression it was out of the question. And then, of course, if you're not up to a lot of things, why, then you lose the capacity to learn and retain. That sounds like kind of an excuse, but that is one of the things that happened. A lot of the people, the Japanese students in high schools, they were really intellectual, they were smart. Like Tok, he was in the Honor Society, Mrs. Matsuoka, she was also. And just about all the Japanese, they ended up with real high grades. Mrs. Kawaguchi, Mitsie Shiraishi, she was (salutatorian) of graduating class of 1930, and I think Tok's sister was, too. So, in the later years, why, I'm sure that there were lot of kids that were real smart and that got good grades, and so that was one of the, I think, the negatives of this generation of ours.

The younger ones, as they, the younger ones got out of school, and started to go to business, why, and higher education, they were quite successful, they had good jobs. Like for instance, there were a farm family of, Takanos. They were in Bellevue, just ordinary farmer, the kids went to school, but they all became real successful, too. Two of 'em are dentists, I think, and one of 'em was a engineer, and the oldest one, George, was a biochemist. So they were all really well-educated and real smart. Of course, I think you have to be pretty smart and pretty articulate to be able to do that. So, that's, I think, one of the negatives.

But at the same time, when the Japanese were evacuated and they all started to go out to different parts of the country, and the generation that went out were more or less, carried the same ideas as the Issei parents. And, they got to know the mainstream of American society, and most of them did very well. They got to know the Japanese, they didn't think they were what they were depicted in the newspapers and the cartoons and things like that. But, most of what Tosh said, I can go along with. And, oh, I imagine there's a lot of positives, too, but I just can't recall them right now, at the present.

AI: Is there anything that you'd like to say about the negatives or the positives?

TH: Not...

AI: About the effects of the war years? Anything that sticks in your mind, especially negative, or anything positive that came out of it?

TH: No. I don't think I could, well, is it, I... is it about the family, then? Or...

AI: Well, if nothing comes to mind right now, that's fine.

TH: No, I think I'd better... yeah.

<End Segment 46> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.