<Begin Segment 20>

TI: I wanted to kind of shift a little bit, and we talked about you and your brothers. I want to talk about your father. Was he very active in any activities at Tule Lake? Do you remember what he was doing?

SY: No.

TI: Did you see him maybe communicating with other Issei men, though, about, just talking about maybe...

SY: Oh, I'm sure he did, but I never saw him. My mother would go to the laundry room and do her laundry, and there's a couple of, few ladies in there, too. And she'd come home and say, "So-and-so and so-and-so were fighting in there," you know. Japan's gonna win, America's gonna win, and started a fight or something. Argument, argument, yeah.

TI: There were arguments in the laundry room between the women who were doing this.

SY: Yeah.

TI: And when she would come back with that information, what kind of discussion happened within the family? Did people talk about that?

SY: No.

TI: So she just would inform people, like, "Oh, there was another fight in the laundry room."

SY: Yes, yes.

TI: "So-and-so said this, and so-and-so said that." And your father wouldn't react to it? He would just kind of...

SY: No, he didn't react.

TI: This is so helpful. It's really great to kind of get these inside glimpses of these activities. So thanks for sharing this.

BT: How is it that your family was getting information? Was it mostly rumors?

SY: Yeah, rumors, too, but well, we had a shortwave radio, and there were jeeps coming around just to look for people using shortwave radios. And then someone would come in and say, "Oh, there's this jeep coming, so turn the radio off." And then after they passed and turned the radio on again. I don't know how my brothers got the radio in there, because we shouldn't have radios. [Laughs] And I guess when you listen to the radio, you get Japanese radio through that. And then they're nothing but, "Japan's winning, Japan's winning." So I said, "Oh, Japan's winning," whether it's good or bad, you know.

TI: And so who was listening to the radio? When you say, okay, so you'd listen to these Japanese broadcasts, who listened?

SY: My brothers, they understand Japanese, and we understand a little Japanese, too, you know. I don't know if it's real or not, but my brother Katsumi, he would say, "Oh, that's propaganda, that's propaganda." But my folks believed it.

TI: Did the authorities ever find out about the shortwave radio?

SY: [Shakes head]

TI: So it was hidden really well and you were able to, you were never caught with it.

BT: Where did they hide it?

SY: I don't know how they got it.

BT: No, well, where did they hide it?

SY: No, it was on the little table, but every time the jeep comes along, we'd turn it off, so they can't sense it.

BT: Yeah, hear the Japanese.

TI: Now at Tule Lake, there were times when the army would go through and search the rooms looking for people, but probably looking for contraband like radios. Did they ever come and search your, your place?

SY: No, no. I didn't know that. [Laughs]

TI: But yet, they targeted your brothers, because they removed them from Tule and sent them, it sounds like, to a DOJ camp, Department of Justice camp. So your brothers were somehow singled out as someone that they needed to remove from Tule Lake. Did you ever know why or what they said?

SY: No. My future husband was the same, he was sent to Bismarck.

TI: Okay, interesting.

BT: Were you in Tule Lake during martial law? Do you recall that period?

SY: What martial law?

BT: That the army took over the camp. It was in 1943, and it was after the "loyalty questions."

SY: No, I don't think so.

BT: Late '43, early '44.

SY: You mean a riot or something?

BT: Yeah, some people describe it as a riot. Do you recall any of that period while you were at Tule Lake?

SY: I think I heard about it, but I really didn't know what it was about.

BT: You weren't part of the crowd that gathered at the administration building?

SY: No, not in the administration building.

BT: Or you don't recall the army coming through the barracks and inspecting for contraband or searching for people?

SY: No, I didn't know that. I didn't know about that.

BT: Were you working while you were in Tule Lake?

SY: No. In Poston I was.

BT: Oh, what were you doing there?

SY: Kitchen.

BT: But in Tule Lake you...

SY: No, I didn't work.

BT: How were you occupying your time?

SY: Oh, with friends. [Laughs]

BT: Most of your friends were people that were planning to go to Japan after the war, or the families were planning?

SY: No, not especially.

BT: It was, what, people that you knew from Salinas or new friends?

SY: No, people I met in camp, in our block.

BT: And did you ever have discussions about going to Japan?

SY: No. Don't remember that.

BT: Or they questioned you being in the Joshidan?

SY: No, no. Come to think of it, it's kind of strange, isn't it?

BT: Well, the future was pretty uncertain.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.