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TI: So, again, tell me what, what else about Japan during this time? Is there anything else that really stands out as a memory for you, because now you're actually making pretty good money, working for the government, I mean, working for the...

HN: I wasn't making good money, but I was surviving.

TI: Surviving, but you're being paid in U.S. dollars?

HN: No, no. Japanese.

TI: Oh, in yen. But, yet, you had a job, so that was, that was good, but, like, your uncle, how did he do during this time? Was he able to rebuild and do all that?

HN: Yeah, he was scraping and doing all this, but then later on, when the boom came, he did okay. Boom... real slowly the Japanese economy started recovering, and when the Korean War started, this is when all the procurement by the U.S. forces, procurement of the materials and equipment and so forth that was needed, that had to be sent to Korea, was all purchased in Japan. That was the, that was the start of the Japanese recovery, of Japanese boom: Korean War. So my uncle made out real good on it, and then, by the time Korean War started, 1950, and by 1950, by 1952, when the Korean War was still going on, Wayne Collins, the attorney from San Francisco -- he, all this time was, I guess, more or less on pro bono basis -- was trying to restore our citizenship. I wasn't directly involved, but I signed up for that when they contacted me. In '52 I was notified, Wayne Collins' office notified me, then the American embassy notified me. They felt I am eligible to have my citizenship restored. If I so desire, come into the embassy and take appropriate actions, so I did and I got my citizenship there.

TI: So before we talk about, finish with that, so why, why... what was your thinking about getting your U.S. citizenship back? Why did you want that?

HN: Okay, I was no longer, no longer incarcerated. I gained again, to a great degree, a confidence in the American way by associating with the forward-looking people, and it was a time where either I should stay in Japan, work there, or get my citizenship restored and become an American citizen and eventually live in U.S. That resentment of incarceration was not there. The resentment was not there because of the good relation I had with these American soldiers, and also the people from, soldiers from Hawaii, the 442nd veterans. They were translator in the business, too, and they were real nice. They... it was different from the JACL. They say, "Of course, we support you." They say, "If I was in your position, we would have done the same thing," so that kind of feeling made me feel, you know, at a point where either I could restore my citizenship and live in America, or I could stay in Japan, work as a Japanese. And I still had the, I still remember those good old days in the schools, and I was fortunate enough to meet many good teachers, so those things I remember and the good relationship with the soldiers restored many of the faith I had in the U.S. So I decided, because I was, I was not incarcerated anymore, that I'll apply, reapply, apply for the restoration of my citizenship. And then I decided to join the Air Force because there was a draft still going on.

TI: Okay, before we go there, though, so your citizenship, restoring your citizenship happened pretty quickly once you decided?

HN: Oh, yeah.

TI: So, some people it took a lot longer. Why was it so quick --

HN: I don't know, because, maybe because the embassy and so forth had a better organized way and they were, they didn't have all these nitpicking people around. I think that's... were there a lot of people that had, they had difficulty?

TI: Yeah, well in your case, though, it may have been your age when you signed the, the renouncing citizenship that... I've read some things where it says if you were actually under twenty-one and signed that, that was considered invalid, and so that people in your age group that signed it were able, it was restored much easier.

HN: And also the judgment, illegal judgment that -- for anybody over twenty-one, though, then that made it not null and void?

TI: Well, I think it took longer for people who were over twenty-one who renounced their citizenship. Like your brother, did he apply for his citizenship?

HN: No, my brother, he was bitter. He didn't go... he was at that age where, that age go to UCLA. Never had the chance. And he was, had a good job by then, with a Japanese company, and so he says, "No," he says, "never again."

TI: So he stayed in Japan.

HN: He stayed in Japan, yeah.

TI: And remained a Japanese citizen?

HN: Yeah. A Japanese citizen, yeah. And there were a few others who took the same position. They were making out good, established, settled.

TI: So there were some men who, or individuals --

HN: Not too many, but, you know, a few that stayed.

TI: -- a few that stayed and did this.

<End Segment 32> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.