Densho Digital Archive
Densho Visual History Collection
Title: Jim M. Tanimoto Interview
Narrator: Jim M. Tanimoto
Interviewers: Tom Ikeda (primary); Barbara Takei (secondary)
Location: Gridley, California
Date: December 10, 2009
Densho ID: denshovh-tjim-01-0018

<Begin Segment 18>

BT: Okay, so would you describe a little bit more about how it was that the soldiers were pressuring or trying to encourage you to sign the "loyalty questionnaire?"

JT: Well, it wasn't the soldiers that was asking us to sign, it was the WRA personnel. According to the story that I read, our director at Tule Lake, Coverley, he was the director at our camp. And he was the one that wanted to get this thing done, more than anybody else. Our block, like I said, most of 'em didn't sign, and they wanted to make an example out of our block so other blocks wouldn't do what we did. After they surrounded our camp, I mean, our block, then we came out, the soldiers made us count off.

BT: And so why is it that you think that there was so much resistance in Block 42?

JT: I don't know. Because we did this on our own, individually. We didn't have a meeting saying, "Don't sign," or "sign," or anything. We didn't have a... this is one reason why I can't figure this guy out about our "number one troublemaker." If he was there, he would be the one that would be trying to convince the group not to sign.

TI: How about just within your family? Rather than talk about the whole group, let's just start with, you talked about your decision. Talk about your brothers and what they decided, and if there was any communication amongst the brothers or within the father, the family.

JT: You know, we didn't really take this thing as serious as what it turned out to be. And then we sort of laughed it off and says, "Here we are, American citizens, and they uprooted us. They did things that they're not supposed to do." And so we never looked beyond, that this was... it wasn't a joke, but something that shouldn't have happened that did happen, and we thought that we were, had, we were in the right and the government was in the wrong. So we didn't really put that much emphasis on what we did or what we didn't do. Basically, that was... most people in our block took it that way.

TI: So when the soldiers surrounded your block and they separated the men and put 'em in groups, that must have come as a surprise to you then.

JT: Well, it was a surprise when we came out of the mess hall to see this group of soldiers around our block. I don't know why the soldiers were there. What they expected for us, how to react, I don't know. Because they were just standing there; they weren't forcing us to do anything, except this one soldier that says, "Get over here." And we went, went along with just exactly what they wanted. When that guy says, "Get over there," we went there. And if the guy says, "Count off," we counted off. And they says, "Okay, you guys get in the truck," we got in the truck. We didn't know where we was going. Actually, some of the guys that I talked to that was younger than I was, they says, "I had a good time over there," in Tule Lake or in WRA camp.

<End Segment 18> - Copyright © 2009 Densho. All Rights Reserved.