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MN: So tell me a little bit about this prison camp. How many barracks were there?
HY: A Barrack, B Barrack, and C Barrack. A Barrack were mostly conscientious objectors and, you know, thieves, you know.
[Interruption]
MN: Which, who were in Barrack A?
HY: Huh?
MN: Barrack A. Who were...
HY: Oh, barrack.
MN: Yeah.
HY: Yeah, A Barrack were conscientious objectors and petty thieves, you know. And what else now? And no draft dodgers, I think. And B Barrack were our group, Amache group, and the illegal immigrants on the other side. And some draft dodger were in there. I think there was one, a couple of thieves in there, yeah. And the C Barrack, all of 'em were conscientious objectors -- no, I mean Jehovah's Witnesses. All of 'em two-hundred-and-some-odd members there. JWs.
MN: So where the Jehovah's Witnesses the most numerous in camp?
HY: [Nods] That's right, yeah. Mostly JWs.
MN: You were telling me about the story about this young kid from Beverly Hills you met there.
HY: Oh, yeah, yeah. He kind of mooched cigarette off me, you know. Said, "You did JW and you want a smoke?" He didn't, he didn't... he wanted, you know, he didn't want to go, period, those guys. They just used the Jehovah's Witness as a, as an excuse. And I asked him, "Where you from?" He says, he says, "I'm from Beverly Hills." And next thing I know, his family comes out of a limousine and visited him. [Laughs] You know, rich people. You only get about six months and takes off.
MN: How did that make you feel?
HY: Oh, make me feel so mad. Got money, well, you get away with murder, like. Here we were in there, we were in legit, you know, our... as a citizen, our privilege was taken away from us. But they had, those people, they got the privilege and everything else. But still, they don't want to go to, you know, defend the country. I guess when you have money, you get away with murder, they say. And when we saw that, oh, man, these guys, kanemochi, rich people was there.
<End Segment 23> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.