Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Mae Iseri Yamada Interview
Narrator: Mae Iseri Yamada
Interviewer: Tom Ikeda
Location: Seattle, Washington
Date: November 13, 2009
Densho ID: denshovh-ymae-01-0020

<Begin Segment 20>

TI: Well, so going back to your father, when he didn't show up the next day or the day after, how did you find out what had happened to your father?

MY: Well, Mike came home and he said, "Hey," he says, "you better go to the immigration station and find out about Dad." And I said, "What do you mean?" and he says, "Well, they said that they took the old folks to the immigration station, so Dad should be there." And I said, "Well, why do I have to go?" I said, "Why don't you guys, one of you guys go?" And here he said that, "Maybe they wouldn't be as rough on a woman as they would a man going in there." So I said, "Okay." So I guess I had Mike's car that day and went in. And it's funny how you remember things, and the harder you try to remember, the worse it gets. But I don't remember whether I went on the East Valley Highway or the West Valley Highway or came on 99, and I don't know how I went home either. I just know that I was there. And this guy had one of these three-cornered hats on, and I walked in there and, of course, it's a big, official building like immigration station, you don't treat it lightly. And I went in and this guy was standing there and he said, "What do you want?" And I said, "Well," I was trying to pick my words real carefully, and I said, "Well, my brother said there's a rumor that you have the first-generation... the FBI came and picked my father up." And I says, "They sent me in to see if I could find out anything, if he was okay and where he was." He says, "So who told you?" and I said, "Well, it's just a rumor and just what we heard from the people outside." And he said, "Okay," he said, "wait a minute." And so he went to check someplace, and he came back and he said, "Yes, he's here." He says, "You can have five minutes with him." So we got in an elevator and went up to whatever floor it was, second floor, third floor, I don't know what. So there's this guard yelling, "Iseri," and so then all of a sudden I can hear this echo in the background, bunch of men's voices going, "Iseri, Iseri." And so I don't know how many people were there or what, but so then Dad came out. Of course, he hadn't changed clothes or shaved or anything, so I don't know that it had, could have been more than a couple days (or less. He said he was the second person to be detained. I would like to know who was the first).

TI: And describe, what was he wearing when you saw him?

MY: Well, he was wearing what he wore when he left home. (He looked tired.)

TI: But he was able to change from his nightclothes to...

MY: No, uh-uh.

TI: Oh, so was he wearing his nightclothes?

MY: He just had his pants. So I said, "Well," I said, "how's things going?" And he said, "Well, I'm okay, how about the rest of you guys?" And I said, "Well, everybody's fine. They're worried about you because they didn't know what they did with you." And he said, "No, I'm fine," but he says, "next time, bring me a couple dollars so I can buy a..." they didn't even have toothpaste or soap for 'em. So he says, "I could use some kozukai for soap and everyday things, toothpaste." So then he says, "Well, five minutes is up." So I said, "Well, Dad," I said, "I didn't think about bringing any money," but I said, "I've got five dollars here. I'll leave that with you and then next time I come in, I'll bring some money so you can get your necessities." And so I tried to hand him this five dollar bill, and that son of a gun, he just grabbed it out of my hand and he said, "You better let me give it to him." He took that five dollar bill and wrinkled it all up, and then he straightened it all out, and then he took it and turned it the other way and scrunched it up again, straightened it out, and handed it to my dad. I can never forget that. That was so disgusting, so insulting, you know, to think that... and the more I thought about it, I says, "That ignorant so and so," I said, "he didn't even look on that five dollar bill to see if I'd written a message on there. If it was anybody else, or if it was me," I said, "the first thing I would do is to look at it and see if they had written something. And if they were smart enough, maybe they had a secret code or something." But he didn't look at it at all, he just crumpled it up and handed it to him. That's why the older I get, the more I think of that incident and it makes me madder than heck, to think that the people think you're so darn dumb that...

TI: So when you think about that five-minute meeting, can you recall how you felt when you saw your dad and some of those feelings or thoughts?

MY: Well, he looked kind of tired, you know, and, of course, his beard is growing and everything. Five minutes is not much time to really discuss anything except to tell him not to worry, everything was okay. But I don't remember coming out of there or where I parked the car or anything, isn't that strange? I know I was there, but I don't remember parking the car or getting back in it to come home. Because they already had this three-mile limit on us. So by the time I crossed that bridge, that Kent bridge, I was already out of the line. So I'm thinking all the time, if somebody's ornery enough to pick me up, I wonder what they'd do to me, you know. But I came home without any problems.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright (c) 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.