<Begin Segment 27>

TI: Okay, and what kind of work were you able to get in Los Angeles when you, when you went back?

FS: When I first came, went back I didn't find anything, so I went to, I went to Lodi to work for a picking, picking Tokays or trimming after that, trimming the trees. And when I got back after that, I think that's when I found the job at a grocery store they call Enbun, Enbun Grocery Store. I worked there for, I worked for them for ten years, until final, until I found supermarket store work.

TI: And when you first, you first got to L.A., couldn't find a job, then you went to Seabrook, you came back, couldn't find a job. Was that pretty common? Were jobs really hard, or was it harder because of, of being someone who renounced his citizenship? I mean, was there any discrimination in terms of finding jobs because of that?

FS: No, I think the job was scarce that time, anyway.

TI: Okay, so I guess maybe the question is have you ever come across any more difficulties because someone knew that you had renounced your citizenship? Was that ever an issue?

FS: No, no. But they didn't know about it. A lot of people --

TI: Yeah, that's why I wanted to know. So how, was there any way for people to know that you had done this?

FS: No, they wouldn't know. Unless I told, unless I said I'm whatchamacall.

TI: And was that something that you shared with other people? Did other people, other people know?

FS: No. Even my wife didn't know. [Laughs]

TI: And so, but now you're, you're sharing what happened, so is this something that happened more recently in terms of, of letting people know that, your story?

FS: I was, I was gonna almost not do this, but I was, I talked to my daughter. She said, "Why don't you do it? It's alright." So that's the only reason I decided that... 'cause like I told Martha, I said, I think I'll change my mind.

TI: No, yeah, and I really do appreciate you doing this because it is part of, I think, a difficult part of this history, and inparticularly your case, where you did nothing wrong, you're thrown in the stockade. I think that really did influence in terms of how you, you saw things. And so it really does show, to me, it almost goes back to the, the, when you're in Florin, just how things were separated, it was almost by chance.

FS: Yeah.

TI: And how sometimes you, a person gets thrown into it and this, this journey takes them a certain way. So for people that see this, I think is really important, so, again, I really appreciate you sharing that.

<End Segment 27> - Copyright © 2010 Densho. All Rights Reserved.