<Begin Segment 33>

DG: Okay, Mrs. Homma. We took a break and let's review a little bit about Los Angeles and Gardena. And you wanted to tell me a little about the story about...

MH: Gardena.

[Interruption]

DG: So okay, let's start again and review a little bit. You came to the United States in 1929.

MH: Uh-huh.

DG: And went to USC?

MH: Uh-huh.

DG: And you wanted to tell me a story about the Pledge of Allegiance.

MH: Yeah, about Gardena.

DG: Okay.

MH: Gardena Baptist Church have a big young people. That time story.

DG: Okay, go ahead and tell me.

MH: See, this boy told me that, when he told me was he was student of USC, that's after the war, so... and then I asked what your father think about the war, and then he said he's a Japanese. "I'm a Nisei." And when I was a small and then, "I owe allegiance to the flag of United States of America." I was memorizing. When he came and said listen, "Can you understand what that mean?" And I said, "I don't know. Memorizing," and he said, "Think. Really think. And then if you are a Nisei, that means American citizen. If you memorize this one, you have to obey. Learn what it mean. So don't forget, America is your country." That's what he said. So he, after the camp -- father was in camp, mother was in camp -- and he was a volunteer to the war. He told me that story. I remember the father's words. So, "I'm an American citizen so I will volunteer." He already married and had one child that time from camp, Colorado camp, to volunteer. That's the story of...

DG: So this is how you felt as you were in the camp, that...

MH: Camp was so much different people. See, some people like that, I'm a citizen so have to be, have to work for the, fight for the America.

DG: Even if their parents are incarcerated in the camp.

MH: Yes. Some we don't have eighteen years boy went to war, volunteered, and went to the war, then killed. Not just came back. Really hard for her. Rest of children all small and then she became a widow, so...

DG: This boy that...

MH: About eighteen, her sons. But husband, I don't know. Killed in action or before that he passed away. Anyway, I saw her as widow.

DG: And you're talking about Amache?

MH: Amache.

<End Segment 33> - Copyright © 1997 Densho. All Rights Reserved.