<Begin Segment 27>

BT: Were you listening, where were you getting your sources of information while you were at Tule Lake?

FS: My folks, they talked about it.

BT: Were they privy to any of these shortwave radio...

FS: My dad was.

BT: Oh. What was he hearing or believing?

FS: He told me one day, he says... who was this general, famous general?

BT: MacArthur?

FS: Huh?

BT: MacArthur, you mean?

FS: No, no, Japanese. Not Yamashita... no, no. Yamamoto Isoroku. He was a navy man, huh? My dad said that he's coming from Japan to Washington to heiwa musubu, to bind the peace treaty. [Laughs] That kind of rumor going around. And then...

BT: You mean peace treaty because...

FS: Japan was winning.

BT: ...Japan won.

FS: Yeah, Japan's winning that war that time. So they're all on a bandwagon, you know. So anything pro-Japanese would win. So they're talking about peace treaty being conducted in Washington, D.C., by Yamamoto Isoroku. He's going to be the head man in charge. That rumor I'll never forget. He was telling everybody about it. [Laughs]

BT: Yeah, there were a lot of rumors in Tule Lake, and a lot of people were confused about what was true.

FS: Yes.

BT: Did you believe any of the English-language sources of information?

FS: No. The only thing I really did was I tried to get Life magazine. Because Life magazine, to me, was telling the truth about the battle in the Pacific. And they even said that they lost so many at the Battle of Tarawa, America lost more people than the Japanese. They put that in Life magazine. So they were telling the truth. So I read those things, and whatever they... I took it in. I took it, I didn't believe it because I wasn't there. But when they said that five thousand marines die and one thousand Japanese die, I have to believe it because Americans saying their own people dying. They're not saying nothing. And then the Battle of Okinawa, the only place that I found there was a lot of rumor and things with Guadalcanal, New Guinea, both sides were lying, I think. But as the war progressed, the war got bigger. And like in Okinawa, Battle of Okinawa, America lost a lot of people. Because here's the thing. Japan had twenty soldiers, and they went through the banzai attack. So they shot quite a few Americans before they had the banzai attack and they died, twenty thousand Japanese dead here, fifty thousand Americans landed here, and ten thousand got hurt. But it took maybe forty thousand to take 'em out of there. I'm going on a ratio.

BT: So did your family, based on a lot of what they were hearing on the shortwave, did they believe that Japan was winning?

FS: My dad did. My dad took the rumors in. Because if anything, it's just like being... if I was pro-American I'd be listening to American side. If you're pro-Japanese, you're this side. I'll give you a good example, I'm kind of jumping ahead, but when our boat reached Uraga, our repat boat, first thing, I got on deck, I saw nothing but gray boats, gray color, American flag. Destroyer, big boat, you know. Just, the whole bay was flooded with American boats. And the Issei people got on top and go, "Oh," they said, "look what America did." And those guys said, "What?" "Gee, they're kind to bring all those boats for reparation." They thought Japan won the war, and those boats were for reparation. You see? To the dying day, until they reached Japan, they believed that Japan won the war, and there was the proof. But they didn't think the American flag had... one guy said, "What American flag?" "Oh, America no boat, that's why they have to have American flag." I mean, you know, common sense, right? You have to believe that.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.