<Begin Segment 29>

TI: And do you know how difficult for the family to all of a sudden change their decision? Because here he's scheduled to go in October to Japan, once he changed his mind was it, was it hard?

MK: No, not really, because us kids all wanted to go back to Hawaii. Of course, it's logical, right? We wanted to go back to Hawaii, and we're glad that Mom decided, was able to change Dad's mind to come, go back. In fact, one of the militant guys -- as soon as the war ended we quit getting haircut. We're going back to Hawaii. That's the, our thinking, as kids. No matter what we thought two weeks ago, now the war is over, we're going back Hawaii. We never went to get our haircut or anything. Make our hairs grow long. And we used to hide when the, we used to go take a bath, community bath, take a bath. When this guy used to come we'd just run out because one of the guys got nailed by him, and the guy grabbed his head against the wall, against the furo, and he said, "You will cut your hair. You Nihonjin." [Laughs]

TI: So he really was trying to pressure people.

MK: Yeah, he pressed that.

TI: And probably wanted you to go to Japan, stay, and change that.

MK: Yeah, but we now changed our mind. We don't want to be that anymore.

TI: Just a quick side note. You mentioned a community bath, was that common in other blocks, or was that something that more in Hawaii, in your block?

MK: I don't know, because in Jerome we never had a community bath. We all had individual showers, but by the time we went to Tule Lake we weren't all Japan, we weren't all Hawaii people. And somebody decided that we were gonna make a big furo in the -- instead of showers, gonna

make a big furo. They wanted a community furo, so then they made a furo and that became the community bath.

TI: So in your, so instead of the showers you had a bath.

MK: Bath, yeah.

TI: Okay, so going back, so some people, when they decided to maybe not go to Japan now, there was some pressure.

MK: There is. There was... now the dissension became the people that going to, going home, and those that's still gonna go back to Japan. There was a separation. But then there was no fighting in that, that as they were fighting the people who were going to, going back to where they came from was leaving as fast as they could go. And we didn't get our papers to move back to Hawaii until October.

TI: October '45.

MK: October '45, yeah.

TI: Okay, 'cause I'm wondering, was this hard for your father? I'm thinking that all along he was thinking he was going to Japan, he probably told people he was going to Japan, and now he's changed, and do you know if that was difficult for your father?

MK: I don't know. I can imagine where he was probably called turncoat and everything else in the camp, 'cause he's militant, he's one of the militants that was pushing to go back to Japan and everything, and now all of a sudden changed that he's going back to Hawaii. And he must have faced some undue pressure that I don't know about.

TI: It must have been hard for him, because in some ways it would have been easier for him to go to Japan, but then when (your) mother convinced him for the family to go back to Hawaii, and he understood that --

MK: I have to give him credit that he did consider us. Not only to his, but he considered us, which made me kind of feel obligated to him in a sense, that he went through and he wanted to go back to Japan any time. I told him, "Don't go over there to live, but I'll get you to Japan anytime you want to go to Japan," and he did. I owed him that.

TI: Okay, good.

<End Segment 29> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.