<Begin Segment 19>

MN: Do you remember any of the Amache/Granada guys who were there with you in that jail?

HY: Sure.

MN: Give me, you want to name some of them?

HY: Joe Norikane, Min, Min... what's his name? What's what-do-you-call-it's name?

MN: Yenokida?

HY: Yenokidas... Yenokida brothers, yes, two of 'em did that, Sam and Min. Yoshikubo, Hiroshi Yamauchi, Joe Norikane, and his brother-in-law was in there, I forgot his name. And... I can't remember other guys.

MN: Okay. Were you the only outside person to join the Amache/Granada group?

HY: Outside?

MN: Yeah. Were you the only non-Amache/Granada group to be in that county jail with them?

HY: Yeah, I was the only one then.

MN: Then.

HY: Yeah.

MN: Then later on, a Heart Mountain person came through, right? Kawasaki? One of the, Kawasaki came into the group from Wyoming.

HY: Oh, yeah. Yeah, his name was Kawasaki.

MN: Why was he there?

HY: I think he was in the hospital in Denver. See, yeah, they brought him a, I think he had, he had some sickness and they brought him to Denver, and he got well during that time when threw us in the, threw him in with us for a month, yeah. That's all I know, Kawasaki. But he said he had to go back to Washington, you know, with the, Kuroni and those people.

MN: McNeil Island.

HY: Yeah, McNeil, McNeil. His daughter was there at Driscoll, remember?

MN: Are you talking about the JACL apology?

HY: Yeah, when we went over there. I forgot her name.

MN: And were you hearing about the Heart Mountain draft resistance?

HY: Heart Mountain draft resisters?

MN: While you were in jail, were you hearing --

HY: Yeah, I was in jail at that time.

MN: And were you keeping up with them?

HY: Keeping track with that Denver Post.

MN: Were you still in jail when the first group of sixty-three Heart Mountain draft resisters were convicted?

HY: The first ones?

MN: Yeah.

HY: That was Sus and them.

MN: No, no, no, when the Heart Mountain group, you know the first Heart Mountain group, they were convicted? Were you still in Denver County Jail?

HY: I was in there, yeah. I was, you're right. I was in there.

MN: So the Heart Mountain group, they were convicted, so how did you feel? How did you feel?

HY: How did I feel? Feel they're getting a raw deal, yeah. Shouldn't be in jail. We all shouldn't have been in jail.

[Interruption]

MN: Now, when you were in jail there, did anybody in that group change their mind and join the army?

HY: Yeah, there was one fellow, I think he was a Heart Mountain, he was at Heart Mountain. Wait, wait, wait. No, Amache group. He was from Washington, state of Washington. He changed his mind, he couldn't stand it. I forgot what his name was.

MN: How about you? Did you ever think about changing your mind?

HY: Not me, no. No, I was with them hundred percent.

MN: How long were you at the Denver County Jail?

HY: Six months. And the Amache group before me, they were there maybe seven, eight months. So they were there when I, you know, went there.

MN: So what did you guys do in jail all day?

HY: Not much. What can you do? Talk, read the magazine, paper, not much to do, you know. Boring.

MN: How were you treated by the Denver County Jail staff?

HY: Oh, they were, they were real nice. We wanted seconds, they brought us seconds. We had plenty to eat.

MN: What did you eat?

HY: Wieners and crackers and peas. [Laughs]

MN: You told me about saltpeter. What is saltpeter?

HY: [Laughs] This was in Tucson. They put it in the coffee, you know.

MN: This was not in jail?

HY: Jail, no, I didn't have any experience there.

MN: Well, since we're talking about it, tell me, what is it?

HY: You know, from getting, you know, thinking about... you know what I mean.

MN: So men don't get an erection?

HY: Huh?

MN: So men don't get an erection?

HY: I think that's the purpose, yeah, because hurt like hell, you know.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.